False Flashers

We were heading northeast on Lincoln road in South Lincoln, MA
shortly after 2 PM today (Sunday-18-Feb).

The flashers came on and the gates came down at the Lincoln
stop, so I figured I'd get to see a train.

After a minute or two, the flashers went off and the gates up,
but NO TRAIN HAD PASSED! I took it easy going across the tracks
and looked both ways: nothing in sight.

The Fitchburg T schedule shows an inbound train (#2406) at Lincoln
at 2:10 PM. I've always assumed that crossing signals are triggered
by an approaching train, but do they also have scheduled times nowadays?

False positives are weird, but I really hope there are no false negatives!!

Is this odd enough that I should report it to the T?

Gary

I would. Worst that can happen is they'll say "yeah, we know..."
I see it a lot here in PAR land. I call N. Billerica and they ask the location. Sometimes they tell me they're aware of the problem. Wet weather will do this sometimes.
Its kind of entertaining if you're a home owner.

Are you sure there wasn't any work equipment in the area? There's a lot of PTC work going on weekends in that area recently.

There was track work in the area, but I don't know whether it was close enough to have an impact or not. Also be aware that some gates have predictors and had a train made a stop nearby, the gates might go back up before it starts moving again. It can cause delays, but when in doubt: call it in. As mentioned, worst case is they already know about it or will explain to you why they think it was working properly. Even if believed to be working properly, they'll protect it and send someone to check. Safety first.

I just called the T ( Main Hotline: 617-222-3200 ), and they checked #2406's GPS.
It got to Lincoln at 2:08 and left at 2:10. So the timing was right, yet neither
my daughter nor I saw it.

It's weird that the flashers came on and the gates went down, but no train
crossed the road.

I REALLY have to get into the habit of checking the time whenever I see
something interesting!!!! However, my receipt from Donelan's has a
time stamp of 14:16:31, so #2406 must have gone by while we were in
the store (though it was a short "buy milk" stop). But that does not explain
the phantom flashers!

BTW, the T person was very nice and helpful!

Gary

Gates are suppose to go to fail safe in case of problems, be it low line voltage, low batteries, track circuit problems like broken rail or activated circuit , hope you called the telephone number on FRA reporting sign .
if not, you only contributed to problem by kicking can down the road.

GaryAF wrote:I just called the T ( Main Hotline: 617-222-3200 ), and they checked #2406's GPS.
It got to Lincoln at 2:08 and left at 2:10. So the timing was right, yet neither
my daughter nor I saw it.

It's weird that the flashers came on and the gates went down, but no train
crossed the road.

I REALLY have to get into the habit of checking the time whenever I see
something interesting!!!! However, my receipt from Donelan's has a
time stamp of 14:16:31, so #2406 must have gone by while we were in
the store (though it was a short "buy milk" stop). But that does not explain
the phantom flashers!

BTW, the T person was very nice and helpful!

Gary

In the future, you should call the number on the crossing and do so immediately. Each crossing has a blue sign with a 24/7 emergency number - that should be the same for any crossing nationwide. The customer service number is not the best one to call. There are many reasons why gates would go down and come back up, a few have been mentioned already, but there could also be a real problem.

While crossings do fail safe, if one is not working properly it's best to report it.

My guess on this one was a track or signal gang working close by. On my way with a friend to church this morning we had the same problem getting across Tri-Rail tracks. In this case there are two tracks and a gang had the crossing tied up moving a bunch of HR vehicles but while they had the crossing blocked a passenger train also came through on the other track. In all we took maybe a 5 minute delay.
Noel Weaver

Went by Concord Depot this afternoon. The Sudbury Rd (eastern) gates were down. Police looked like they had been there a while. The ~5:00 westbound express was probably the last train before the event.