by JohnFromJersey
CharlieL wrote: ↑Wed Jun 01, 2022 4:13 pm Would be surprised if any of them other than possibly the 524 crossing would have gates. I think that's a decision for the local or county municipality. Figure 2x weekly service, that's only 4x/week the crossing would have rail traffic. The only one of the crossings that has significant road traffic is 524 (Adelphia-Farmingdale rd).I wouldn't be shocked if, over the next 1-5 years, you see daily if not more service on the SOUS. Remember, C&D is very aggressive at finding customers on their lines, and the SOUS has a lot of potential for that. If Clayton finds local customers for their sand, DRRR gets a transloading operation on the TRIT that proves to be hot with the local industries, and anyone else wants service, I could see there being some serious traffic on the FIT and SOUS that hasn't been seen in decades. If DRRR made a sizeable transloading facility that can handle multiple businesses and industries coming in and out (at that point, wouldn't it be a yard?), you could potentially see that thing get its own train at least once a day.
Even if service isn't the most frequent, say DRRR gets most of the tracks on the OOS section to Class 2 for whatever reason. That's 25 MPH, with some crews probably going over that from time to time, and with how busy these roads are and how I've seen some of the people drive, I think gates would be a good idea.
Remember, everyone in this area is used to the tracks being seldomly used; if trains one day start running 1x a day at 25 MPH, when they used to be 1x a week at <10MPH, there's going to be some issues if there are no gates. I have seen a lot of close calls myself...
In addition: across the liquor store in Farmingdale, on the ROW, there is considerable empty space next to the tracks; very often, patrons of the liquor store and Woody's will park there. It will be interesting to see how people react to the train coming more often, and how DRRR will deal with those people...
