Questions about Washington Street crossing in Gloucester

Does anyone know why Washington Street is the only crossing in Gloucester where train horns are not sounded? Horns are sounded at the other four crossings in Gloucester (Maplewood Avenue, Willow Street, Cedar Street, and Cleveland Street), so why is that not the case at Washington Street? Secondly, why was Washington Street made a stop crossing? For anyone who doesn't know, all trains must stop before the crossing, wait for the gates to lower, and then proceed. I have heard several different stories about why that is done and do not know which is true. Hopefully, someone on here has the answer. Thanks!

The streets that you mentioned were the horn is sounded are in very close proximity to each other. As for the crossing at Washington st being a stop to cross, look at how close the platform is to the street if the gates were down for any extended amount of time you would have traffic backed up for some distance as this a major artery to the highway. This way it is set up that they can come into station and board passengers pull up a bit to activate the signals and proceed inbound. Check out Manchester by the sea, and Ipswich as they also have this stop to cross setup for the crossings.

BandM4266 wrote:The streets that you mentioned were the horn is sounded are in very close proximity to each other. As for the crossing at Washington st being a stop to cross, look at how close the platform is to the street if the gates were down for any extended amount of time you would have traffic backed up for some distance as this a major artery to the highway. This way it is set up that they can come into station and board passengers pull up a bit to activate the signals and proceed inbound. Check out Manchester by the sea, and Ipswich as they also have this stop to cross setup for the crossings.

Very interesting. So does that mean that Washington Street was made a stop crossing right after the highway (Route 128) was built? If so, that would mean that Washington Street has been a stop crossing for over forty years, as I believe Route 128 was constructed sometime in the 1960s.

Regarding Manchester-By-The-Sea, the crossing at the inner end of the station (Beach Street) is a stop crossing only for inbound trains, while the crossing at the outer end of the station (Sea Street) is a stop crossing only for outbound trains. Not sure what the reason for this is, as neither street is an artery for a highway. And the crossing at Ipswich (Topsfield Road) is a stop crossing only for outbound trains. Whenever an outbound train pulls into Ipswich, the engineer has to punch in a code to turn the signal green, which in turn activates the gates.

BandM4266 wrote:Check out Manchester by the sea, and Ipswich as they also have this stop to cross setup for the crossings.

The Washington St. crossing requires a train to stop before crossing the street entering the station. The stations above do not require this, they only require a stop when departing stations.

sery2831 wrote:

BandM4266 wrote:Check out Manchester by the sea, and Ipswich as they also have this stop to cross setup for the crossings.

The Washington St. crossing requires a train to stop before crossing the street entering the station. The stations above do not require this, they only require a stop when departing stations.

Also, don't forget that Topsfield Road used to be a horn crossing, only for outbound trains. It is now a quiet crossing for both outbounds and inbounds. The other crossings in Ipswich (Washington Street, Mineral Street, Liberty Street, and Linebrook Road) have always been quiet crossings for trains going in both directions, with the exception of when Ipswich's quiet zone application expired, which was in the summer of 2008. While the Town of Ipswich was getting the quiet zone application renewed, train horns were blown at every crossing in Ipswich, much to the annoyance of many residents.

sery2831 wrote:

BandM4266 wrote:Check out Manchester by the sea, and Ipswich as they also have this stop to cross setup for the crossings.

The Washington St. crossing requires a train to stop before crossing the street entering the station. The stations above do not require this, they only require a stop when departing stations.

Yes I forgot to mention the fact that the trains needed to stop before crossing Washington St outbound as well. Now for Manchester I was told that they had set it up this way as the boarding time was longer due to the crowds returning from Singing Beach.

Now is it set up like this in Ipswich because of how close the platform is to the street? I remember when Ipswhich was the last station on the line so I am assuming that the MBTA had the station placed this close to the road as it was the end of the line and did not have plans on extending the line any further?

BandM4266 wrote:

sery2831 wrote:

BandM4266 wrote:Check out Manchester by the sea, and Ipswich as they also have this stop to cross setup for the crossings.

The Washington St. crossing requires a train to stop before crossing the street entering the station. The stations above do not require this, they only require a stop when departing stations.

Yes I forgot to mention the fact that the trains needed to stop before crossing Washington St outbound as well. Now for Manchester I was told that they had set it up this way as the boarding time was longer due to the crowds returning from Singing Beach.

Now is it set up like this in Ipswich because of how close the platform is to the street? I remember when Ipswhich was the last station on the line so I am assuming that the MBTA had the station placed this close to the road as it was the end of the line and did not have plans on extending the line any further?

I doubt that the crossings in Manchester were made stop crossings because of the longer boarding time caused by the large crowds from Singing Beach. This would only be the case during the summer, as that it when the beach season is. I can't imagine that Beach Street and Sea Street would have been made stop crossings solely because of something that lasts just for a few months. There has to be another reason.

I believe there must have been another reason also, I was only stating what I was told by a friend that was an Engineer for MBCR. The Moderator or someone else maybe able to help me with the question I had, because I did find it odd as you stated for just a few months.

BandM4266 wrote:Now is it set up like this in Ipswich because of how close the platform is to the street? I remember when Ipswhich was the last station on the line so I am assuming that the MBTA had the station placed this close to the road as it was the end of the line and did not have plans on extending the line any further?

Maybe. More likely they put it there because it's the closest place to the original station site (literally across the street) where they could stick a long platform without running into the same problem they have in Stoughton of trains blocking crossings while platformed. Plus, of course, no crossings between there and the former layover just to the south.

I don't know what the T's plans were regarding service restoration during the 20 or so years between the end of service in 1976 and when actual work on restoring service in the '90s began.

One story I have heard about why Washington Street is a stop crossing is as follows - In the early 1970s, there was a locomotive engineer on the Boston & Maine by the name of Tom Burnet. He owned the job that finished up on the last train of the night to Rockport, which went over Washington Street at 1:00 in the morning. At the time, Washington Street was a horn crossing and Burnet would blow the horn as loud as he could there at 1:00 in the morning. The neighbors constantly complained to the railroad, but nothing was done. So to fix the problem, the City of Gloucester went to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and got Washington Street made a stop crossing, which would silence train horns there.

There is little doubt in my mind that this story is a myth. First off, why is Washington Street still a stop crossing some forty years later? Second, I doubt that a crossing would be made a stop crossing because of one engineer. The railroad almost certainly would have told him to stop blowing the horn so loudly there. Third, to the best of my knowledge, the state DPU has nothing to do with the designing/altering of grade crossings. If I am wrong, please correct me. But from what I understand, grade crossings are designed, inspected, and fixed by the railroad, as well as by the state Department of Transportation. In any event, if anyone else has heard this story and knows whether or not it is true, let me know. Thanks.