Railroad Forums 

  • What happens when a car is on the tracks?

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #187260  by l008com
 
http://massroads.com/image.php?subject= ... 1&zoom=yes

What happened here? I emailed the photographer to ask him what happened. But I figured you guys would probably know. I have no idea, did the train plow through the car? Or would he stop and wait for the driver? Thats a good lesson, stay off the tracks even if you think they are lifeless. haha

 #187423  by MEC407
 
Train crew probably called the dispatcher, who then perhaps called a tow truck to have the car moved.

 #187454  by NYNE
 
Back in the 1980s I lived in Lowell and one night I watched a GP-7 leave the yard and head for the Prince Spaghetti factory. There was this little side street with pseudo-street running. The tracks ran down the center of the street but were ballasted, etc. The neighborhood folks, however, would park right up against the curbing that protected the tracks in the middle of the street.

Anyway, I watched the crew get off the train and ring doorbells up and down the street to get the people to move their cars so the train could go through. It was an amusing sight for me, probably not for the crew, and I figured it was a probably a pretty regular occurance.

 #187456  by l008com
 
Yeah I was kinda thinking that that place is probably some little store or something, so the guys probably ran in and said something like ''hey anyone here own a saab thats about to get hit by a train''
But with the lowell thing, all they have to do is plow through once, and I bet they'd never have that problem again. Do you know of any pics of the street you are talking about?

 #188781  by GP9
 
Yeah good idea! No lawsuits there!!!

 #188783  by l008com
 
If a car is parked on the tracks, isn't that trespassing?

 #189864  by CSX Conductor
 
I wouldn't bother knocking on doors on that Lowell Street, given the neighborhood it's in, LOL.

As for hitting a car which is fouling the tracks, the crew will get in trouble if the track is at a location where they are supposed to be going Restricted Speed (i.e. an industrial track, a yard track or a customer siding etc.). However I agree with you about hitting the car to teach it's owner a lesson. Unfortunately nowadays someone might shoot ya if you did it to their car.

 #189995  by NYNE
 
As far as the Lowell thing was concerned. It didn't seem like there was a lot of anger on either side of the equation. No one on the crew seemed eager to smash someone's car and no one who came out to move their car seemed that annoyed either. From the looks of things the whole neighborhood and the railroad seemed to have worked things out just fine. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos. It was one of those things where I figured there would be another opportunity... but there never was...

 #189997  by l008com
 
What was the name of the street, do you know? I can't imagine that the crew wasn't annoyed with that. Even if they didn't act like asshole, still they must have been pissed off.

 #190004  by TPR37777
 
It was Prince Avenue (not surprisingly) where the spur crossed Moore Street into the Prince Spaghetti plant. The crossing and the spur itself are almost completely gone now, the plant having been closed several years ago. As for the picture in Lawrence, the car in question is parked at a liquor store on South Broadway.

 #190230  by CSX Conductor
 
TPR37777 wrote:The crossing and the spur itself are almost completely gone now
I drove by Prince Ave a few weeks ago and it looks like some of the rail may still be in place in the "r.o.w. island" on the street.
NYNE wrote:Unfortunately I didn't take any photos. It was one of those things where I figured there would be another opportunity... but there never was...
I too missed quite a few chances to photograph the switcher working Prince. :(