Grade crossing ?vent pipes?

In my area (Wilkes-Barre) nearly every Lehigh Valley grade crossing has a pipe with an inverted "V" on the top stuck in the ground on the side of the road. Right near the crossbucks. In some case the pipes remained well after the track had been removed (case in point: the point at which the Valley's Bowman's Creek branch crossed Route 11 in Forty Fort has been trackless for twenty years, yet the pipe is still there)
Looks almost like a caboose chimmney or something like this:

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Anyone have any idea what this was for?

Hmmmm..........I'm in Western NY State, but there are plenty of spots where the LV crossed. I will look and see if there are any such things up here. Will get back on that...............Maybe Golden-Arm can add to this!

Greetings, I will add this observation, which is visible on railroad right of ways, across the country. Most railroads travel great distances, ofter in very direct lines. As private property, they make handsome property, for those folks wishing to locate utilities, such as electric transmission towers, pipelines and telephone service caables. You are seeing a vent pipe, from either an underground gas/oil pipeline, or a vent for a phone junction box. These utilities run a pipeline across the county, state or country, and pay the railroad a lease, for use of the real estate. Must be a gas pipeline, I would imagine, and these vent to atmosphere, the unions, valves, couplings, etc., as well as the insulating jacket pipe, that often wraps the transmission pipeline. Oftentimes, you will find, somewhere along the line, a name, or sticker, on one of those vents, with emergency contact info. I'm not sure how you would look, but there might be a way to go online, and follow these "corridors" across the country, as they follow alongside Americas railroads. These are not related to any function pertaining to the operation of the RR, just vents and markers, visible to those workers, searching them out. Regards

I'm familiar with those kinds of pipes. However, this pipe is almost of the tipe used years ago to construct swingsets in parks. The inverted V is welded to the pipe that is stuck in the ground. Probably no more than an inch and a half to two inches in diameter.

Thanks for the replies

Still sounds like the same thing, to me. Those vent pipes range from about 1 1/2" in diameter, up to 8". Some have inverted "VEE" on the top, some look like a candycane, and others have "half of a vee", with just a single angled pipe, facing downwards, on the vent. They are welded on, to prevent vandals from stealing them, and to make them stronger. Grade crossings wouldn't need a vent pipe, and battery cisterns, where the batteries used to be stored, before the advent of smaller wet cells, and dry cell batteries, are usually giant boxes, or round boxes, with concrete lids, or sometimes metal lids. These are vented, but usually right on the side of the box, or in the lid. There would be no mistaking a battery vault/cistern. It could be possible, also, that these are "flanger" posts, if located on both sides of the crossing, and if the angled piece of the pipe is at a right angle to the tracks. I could see these being used in place of the older style, flattened steel, welded to a pipe, also at an angle. If you are in an area, that is no longer on the railroad, you could always do a little "exploring", with a small garden shovel, and see where it leads you.......

That is a vent made to prevent water from entering...might be a valve or gauge chamber on a pipeline...that needs to breathe for some reason.

I've see the same thing along some of the old Abandoned Highspeed tolly lines here in New York all of which had the same looks. They were following along a few high voltage power lines and a natural gas line.

SRS125 Wrote

I've see the same thing along some of the old Abandoned Highspeed tolly lines here in New York all of which had the same looks

Don't type with your mouth full, can't understand you...