There is the rub. You say there are no "Cross Bucks" where the road crosses the tracks, and that there is chain link fencing across the tracks on either side of the roadway.

If it is an active railroad crossing, the railroad that uses it must have the minimum warning signs, of "Cross Bucks" at the tracks, on both sides, as well as warnings 250 feet before the crossings themselves. Those are usually the round signs, yellow background, with either the words "Railroad Crossing Ahead", or the simple "cross bucks", in black paint, on the signs.
Windy is right...talk with the "Locals". If it is indeed an active crossing, then the railroad needs to mark it as such.

As far as "Active" crossings go....stop as you described, proceed with caution...NEVER stop with any portion of your unit within 15 feet of either side of the track. IF a light changes while you are in the process of crossing the tracks, from green to red(you are supposed to already have you emergency flashers running), you need to immediately begin sounding your air horn, three long and loud blasts, repeated until you clear the crossing AND the road intersection. You start honking that air horn as soon as you see the amber light. If you must do so for safety, turn right and alter your route. The big thing is getting that air horn blowing as soon as you see a light flip from green to amber, before it goes red. You will scare the crap out of people...but better that than other "consequences".

Crossing railroad tracks is a dangerous operation, with HazMat, especially in high volume traffic. I usually try and route myself around street level crossings, to use over passes or under passes. But sometimes you just can not.

 

Just for the sake of safety and to avoid being hassled by any local cops or DOT, I have been stopping at any and all RR crossing, regardless of how derelict they appear.

At any rate, in this particular part of the city, there are miles and miles upon more miles of railroad tracks that don't go anywhere, switch tracks that stop at a building (i.e. the land was previously owned by a railroad, sold to a private party, and the track removed up to the property line), signs for RR crossings where there are no tracks, tracks that are rarely used but not marked at all, etc.

It's a very screwy situation all the way around as far as being able to tell by looking whether or not a track is active. To give another example, about 3/4 mile away, there are crossing arms and signs at a railroad crossing - however, the rail stops approximately 30 yards onto property owned by General Mills (the cereal manufacturer) and ends in a big pile of weeds and debris. In the opposite direction, this particular spur connects back to a mainline that is currently in use by a commuter train.

Logic would dictate that any train that takes that spur would derail once it entered the General Mills property, so there is obviously not going to be a train using that crossing. At the same time, it is marked and does have crossing arms.....so..... :lol:

Stuff like that is what prompted me to ask my original question.

 

An excellent question/subject that can not be revisited too many times!

Stan, I have never been trained regarding that particular circumstance. I have now. Thanks!

It's almost like you have done this for years. :wink:

Again, Thank you.

 

Ummmm...Yeah.....We had more than our fair share of "Street Level" crossings to deal with in Seattle. One major pain in the Patootie, was a crossing up at Ferndale WA, east of CherryPoint refinery. The mainline for passenger trains coming down out of Canada..and up to Canada. They fly through there at 65..75 mph. East of the crossing, 20 feet, was a 4 way stop. We managed to convince the terminal manager that the company needed to have sitdown's with Whatcom county sheriff's office, the WA state patrol, AMTRAK and Burlington Northern. What I described was what they all came up with, for HazMat at rail crossings. That one crossing, they determined had over 400 hazmat crossings a day occur by truck. 4-wheelers were not allowing the trucks time to clear the tracks.
"Project Lifesaver" was supposed to take it (Blowing the airhorn with 3 long blasts repeated until clear) nationwide...but I don't know if they did. ARCO switched from the regular airhorns to small "train" horns in 1996. Made a heck of a difference with 4-wheelers hearing the truck.

The big thing is clearing the track. A van or flatbed getting wiped by a train is a bad deal...a gasoline tanker...I don't care to be there...a Propane tanker or a Chemical tanker...Ummmmmmmmm...nope...color me gone!!!!

 

so I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign
I said thank you Lord for thinking about me, I'm alive and doing fine
Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign

 

TOO FUNNY! That song is playing right now, on the radio station I am listening to.

 

Pretty good their Madcat!

 

FYI... lots of train crossings now have cameras. So if you cross without stopping they can send the $500 ticket in the mail. And all trains have camera's taking video.

And make sure to cross in the lowest gear. You don't want to stall while on the tracks.

 

That is the first I had heard of the cams at RR crossings CB! I guess that it shouldn't come as any surprise though. Thanks for the heads up!

 

I also travel into a port with a rail road crossing such as this....I always stop, regardless of this part of the track being closed.....what's another 5 seconds? I'd rather stop than risk getting a ticket from an officer who doesn't know the rules....and there are a bunch of them out there.....I would stop.......