Information On Railroad Crossings

when approaching a railroad crossing, you may see a large yellow sign with lights that say "train ahead when lights flashing."

If you pass this sign and the lights are not flashing, but when you round the corner and red lights are flashing at the crossing, you might be thinking: Are they always on?

No, the lights are NOT always on and you better hoof it over the tracks before the guard crashes down on your trailer since you are past the point of no return.

This can be verified when you look behind you a few seconds later and the train is where you just were.

The next step is to change your shorts

You know what both scares me and annoys the crap out of me at the same time... places that have railroad crossings without crossing arms or flashing lights or anything.

They scare me because it's up to you to check for a train and hope it's not doing a billion miles per hour (usually they are not in those areas).

They annoy the crap out of me because of federal railroad governing body says they have to toot their horn a certain pattern and time of day makes no difference. it's for our (all drivers not just truckers) safety but I had to deal with it in my 2nd year of AmeriCorps. The place I was living at in New Orleans for a month was about 2 blocks from those kind of track crossings and it was a very busy train route. I'd say at least once an hour to no more than 3 hours went by with a train. i forgot the pattern now but i think it's something like 1 short 1 long 1 short pattern, or maybe it was 1 long 1 short 1 long. whatever it was it made sleep difficult.

mixed feelings on those kind of crossings overall :p

I haven't been out long, but so far every railroad crossing has had lights and guards. I didn't hear any horns but I would think it would be in the best interest of the conductor to use them when traffic is approaching the RR crossing

FYI, it's two longs, a short, then a long. Also, often it seems like the engineers don't sound the horns in a timely manner, but distance and speed can hinder the sound. The real problem is how far down the tracks you can (not) see from your stopping point on the roadway due to crossing angles and buildings, trees, etc.

The ones that annoy me the most are the ones I stop at, then realize they paved over the tracks because they no longer use them. But they leave the signs for them up!!! So I have to stop traffic deep in rural Georgia, 4 ways on, to check for a train that will never come because they never pulled the signs. The whole time, old ladies are passing me, giving me the finger lol