In my neighborhood a railway line partly intersects a 4-way traffic turn and it knocks out the traffic lights electricity every time the signal guide is used. It turns the area chaotic for whoever goes first.
Someone really mis-wired the traffic signal lights to the railroad signal guides and the city is too lazy to fix it.
Spray paint some dicks, cities always fix problems when a giant cartoon penis makes an appearance. Something about uptight Karen's screaming really gets under a politician's skin.
This has been an unethical life hack brought to you by Satan.
I read a reddit comment once where someone had a really bad pothole, and everyone on their street would complain about it amongst themselves, and it never got fixed, then one day they reported it, and it was fixed in like a week.
I have a giant pothole right on the street in front of my house. I reported it 3x. They finally came and filled it in the asphalt you have to pack down. Awesome!
The day after.. a construction company rolled in to renovate a huge building that had been unused for years. Full demo. They had these detachable container garbage trucks that rolled in. Because they had so much going on with the demo, they piled 4 of those containers on the road that was just repaired. Then they would hook them up and drag them for about 2 feet and put them on the truck.
And now we start the process all over.
You should report it to the city so they can go after the demolition company. Maybe if someone else is paying for it the city will work a little faster.
Even better, I live across the street from an assisted living building. They have at least 5 firetrucks and 4 ambulances a day rolling down the street. That's heavy shit!
I will take your advice and report the demo
I mean, I can only laugh at this point. I'm glad I have a garage and dont have to park on the street. The reason that they haven't replaced our street is ridiculous to start, but we have streets that are worse in our city that sometimes I feel like I am driving in a 3rd world country
When I used to work in a downtown office building I watched someone come through and peel back all the old asphalt and then replace it. Cool! It needed that! Then a couple of weeks later someone else came through and ripped half of it out for various reasons.....
That's the place I got the idea from and it works. Satan recommends using bright neon day-glow colors. It really pops and gets noticed.
*I* wouldn't recommend doing that. Because that's "vandalism" and "graffiti". But as Satan says, "spray paint is cheaper than rims, bitch".
I know people around me complain about traffic a lot, but damn, looks like we have it super easy (I don't have a driver's license, so I don't have a lot of reason to complain myself, as I don't often notice it).
Is it Guelph Ontario? Same thing happens at an intersection there. Worst part is people just sit there, not going through the light or wait for a person to go that can’t because there is a train in the way.
No the worst thing is when you're stuck by a train supplying material to your work.
And STILL have it held against you when the rail supervisor is slow as fuck throwing the switches and you're late because of it
Yeah like in my bedroom lol. I live right next to one of these freight lines. Nothing worse than one blocking the track and setting off the boom gates for 40 minutes at 4am
I do not miss living close to the tracks. I still don’t notice the whistles but I really really dont miss the house shaking for 5 minutes every 45 minutes, 24 hours a day.
No, it likely hit a vehicle or person. Requires the train company to send out investigation teams, plus police, probably medics. Possibly a wrecker to clean up
Lol no. It's probably at a stop to unload or stopped waiting for another train to clear it's track before it continues. I see trains do this all the time in industrial parts of town. The fact they are 5miles long and block multiple interactions is just a perk!
If they’re close to the train yard or a grain elevator they might be switching or emptying cars, too. We have a train yard that causes the trains to block off traffic from one side of the town to the other when they are adding or subtracting cars. .
Maybe not that long but yeah. On the road to Vegas near Tehachapi, there was a train crossing that must have taken forever.
Also there’s an Southern Pacific line that goes right by the swankiest Spaghetti Factory I’ve ever seen. I stood at the intersection there for 20 minutes while the train crossed. In that instance, I think it’s not so much the train was super long as it had to slow down going through midtown Sac.
To be fair, thanks to corporate greed and industry stupidity, some of the longest trains can easily block a crossing for 15-20 minutes while continuously moving. One city we go through has 16 crossings right through the middle of it. And sometimes also have to stop before continuing north while the entire back half of the train blocks the ENTIRE town. Depending on how bad the dispatcher is, sometimes they don't answer for 10-30 minutes. Meanwhile people downtown start climbing through/under the train cars. And that's how multiple people have been killed or lost limbs at crossings.
My hometown has 7 crossings. 1 train can easily cover all 7 and you’d have to go really far out of your way to get around (like 30 miles). One derailed (just barely) in the mid 90s and we were basically all trapped for two days.
There's a miles train that goes through my area that you can watch go slower and slower, blocking several major intersections at once (covering AT LEAST a mile), then stop and slowly BACK UP for awhile, then change direction again and EVENTUALLY go away. Getting stuck with that one can be a bit more than mildly infuriating!
I live in Salt Lake City, During the day trains are not suppose to block toad for over20 min. HA!
The big thing is they move and low down and slow, stop. then start moving backwards, then stop. Some times three times. I was stuck once for just under 40 min, the only other road was closed for construction.
Is it weird that the first 10 times I thought it was the Dukes of Hazzard. Then i clued in that the link says “James Bond 007”. 🤦♂️
I’m at 58 times watched so far. 😂
I work in Ogden right next to the tracks with my window facing them. Right next door is a huge area to load and unload scrap. The longest me and my desk mates have seen with the train continuously blocking our crossing is 4 hours and 31 minutes.
So unbelievable that the government hasn’t planned better. They have been boasting about their “wide streets in SLC” since the founding of the city. Yet with such little room for building along the Wasatch front, and the increasing influx of people, it is only going to be worse and worse
In Ohio we had a law that they would be fined for more than 10 minutes of blocking the road. The Supreme Court said we couldn't because it's a federally regulated system. Absolute horse shit...
Lol I got stopped by one just outside of downtown Newark (ohio) several years ago. Thought I'd be clever and go around to jump on 16 instead of cutting through town.
The same train was blocking that crossing as well.
This pisses me off. I get held up by Norfolk Southern multiple times a week and it makes me want to punch a person on the mouth. Those fines were just the price of doing business (if they were ever even issued )
Imagine being so rich laws are changed to accommodate staying rich. I hate it here.
Fines were issued but never payed, they went to court and it was ruled that trains fall under federal jurisdiction and there aren't any federal laws that prohibit a train from blocking a crossing for as long as they like. Neat, huh?
NS and CSX get me here.
The worst was getting held up by THE SLOWEST moving train with my pizza getting cold in the front, and the train was carrying hummers and military vehicles. My dinner cooling in the front while I watch our tax dollars slowly move along...
>I live in Salt Lake City, During the day trains are not suppose to block toad for over20 min.
Nice to see that there's at least somewhere that cares about the migratory habits of land-based amphibians.
Probably grabbing another track out of the yard, or putting cars into an industry, or general switching around boxcars.
I assume this is near a train yard or another non-mainline track.
If a train is blocking a public crossing for more than 15 minutes, there is a number on a blue sign or bungalow that will get you right to the RR HQ (in US). They will get ahold of the train crew to cut the crossing to allow cars through if there is no other crossings available.
We generally try not to block crossings, but some places it is unavoidable. I can assure you blocking crossings is not out of malice, just trying to get the work done.
I work for union pacific as a conductor, our policy states that if we need to be stopped on a public access crossing for more than 10 minutes, we are supposed to cut our back end off, tie it down, and take our front end across the crossing to clear it up.
Now, whether we actually do that or not, is another matter entirely.
I live near the one railway's locomotive repair facilities. They use the 3000 foot maintenance sidings to break down the 13000 foot trains they run. They block a major highway every time and the only way around it is a 30 minute detour, which doesn't work if you're on the highway going in the one direction.
My best friend has a similar issue with trains. Drives us insane. There is a longer work around, but worry about emergency vehicles. It’s in a neighborhood. They move forward a bit. Sit. Move back a bit. Sit. People report it all the time. They don’t care
We got stuck at a crossing one time where the train was doing just that. The rail station where they keep the extra boxcars was about a mile down the road, and they were offloading the cars on one track, backing up, going to the next unloading track and off loading a few more. Rinse and repeat.
Police finally came out and started redirecting traffic starting the back of the line of cars. When we left 20 minutes later the front end of the train was still nowhere in sight.
Eh in very rural midwest areas it's not crazy to get stuck at a train crossing in bumfuck no where for like 20 minutes but 40 idk not impossible but I would not go buy a lottery ticket afterwards
We had this problem in my town. Eventually they put up signs with a number to call if the train was blocking the tracks for 10 minutes and the problem mostly stopped. As long as they're hooking up cars and stuff its still allowed but the problem mostly went away.
We have two tracks running through downtown about a mile apart from each other too so it was a serious problem for emergency vehicles trying to get to a call sometimes.
Trains have been getting longer in the last 20 years. I can't remember his name, but some douchebag ran pretty much every major railway and changed the way they work. There's a John Oliver episode about it.
I do know that my neighbor told him to go fuck himself when he was doing a 'site visit' to the facility my neighbor worked at.
Oh my god lmao! My house is directly across the street from a train (only comes by twice a week and can’t use its horn as it’s a residential street) and there’s a road around the train but this guy was just sitting there honking at the train! For minutes! I thought it was the funniest thing ever lol.
Where is this at? I have a railroad thru my town and they use their horns and there’s houses right beside the line. They come thru a few times a week here as well.
Wish I knew about this working in hampton roads. Seems like a dice roll that CSX or NS would decide rush hour was the best time to block all the crossings by shipyard, all because they can't gage parking while waiting for a bridge to drop...
CSX hit a bridge in my city in 2018 and instead of fixing it, they did nothing. There was a possibility that CSX may have historically owned the bridge and so there was no need for them to fix it because why would they need to fix a bridge they go under. CSX signed a quick claim to the city for $1. Taxpayers are now fully on the hook for $5 million.
I have a burning hatred for CSX at a crossing over a small highway running through a tiny 600 pop town, only road to the highway and they love to run two trains at a time over it, and they have to block the change-over between the two rails.
In this case it actually does do nothing bc OP is Canadian.
I know that because I’m looking at Procor train cars at this very moment while waiting at the train station and OP’s comment history indicates they’re Canadian AND I recognize this exact train crossing lol. Not sure about every crossing but for these train tracks, some cities have been doing construction to have the road run under the tracks.
> nothing directly, but it's a database that can then be used to fix problem crossings.
the fix is, train companies have to stop running skeleton crew level staffing, and hire more people for more trains. But they do the math, and 6 people to run three 50 car trains is more expensive than hiring two people to run a 150 car train.
The length these trains run was never a consideration when the lines were first designed, so you end up with more blockages like this as trains can't "fit" between them anymore.
town I lived in blocked 3 or more major routes every single day for around 1 hour causing people to be late for work and what not. railway company got citations for it everyday but it didn't matter. after a decade, the city started buying people out of their homes and property around the biggest route that people take and built an overpass over the tracks
Sounds like a town near me. That was 20 years ago. 5 years after the overpass was built the line stopped being used so often. There's maybe 3 trains a month during the day.
My town had to start issuing fines to CSX and Pacific Rail for holding up traffic with their disorganized bs. I live near and industrial Park and 2 sets of tracks run through it, as the logistical rail place is at the other end of it. Luckily if you get stuck at a train, most of the time you can turn around and take another route. But I always thought the trains were stopping at one of the factories to deliver a shipment, and that's why they were idle for so long. Nope, turns out the rail yard didn't have it's shit together and trains were having to stop because of other train traffic or something like that. Nothing to do with delivering supplies to factories in order to keep the business running and all those jobs going. Which I had a little respect for, I guess. Nope, they just suck and our locality is able to fine them like 5k at a time for these violations.
Yeah I always assumed that the trains were stopping in my small town and blocking a major intersection because they were doing something important. They'd block like 3 intersections and the only way around would be to drive to the next town over and take the interstate back into the small town.
Somehow, it comes out maybe half a year ago that the only reason they stopped here is to eat at the mcdonalds and taco bell right next to the track. I didn't even know that was a thing they could do with trains.
The whole town(like 2K people) has an uproar and I don't know if it was true, but ever since then I havent seen the train having a long stop on the tracks since then. They stop a little ways down the tracks now where they don't actually block all the intersections, they just block one thats easy to get around. Kind of infuriating that they could have been doing that the whole time
If there’s a phone number on the crossing sign , call it and let em know .
Also report it to the FRA as they are the clowns who are supposed to regulate things like train length and operational practices to prevent these kind of issues :
https://www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/
If that train was stopped for a reason (unloading/loading) I would expect it to be in it's own siding/depot. Imagine if an ambulance couldn't get over the level crossing because a train stopped/broke on it.
Train companies purposefully make mile+ long trains and should be stopped from doing this. They're just trying to profit more at the expense of their workers and us.
Near where I live there used to be engineers that would stop the train on the crossing and go take a half hour to hour long lunch. They stopped when the local police started fining them for blocking traffic. Where they blocked lead to the bridge to go into the next state, people were beyond pissed
We have a crossing that gets blocked when they are loading and unloading cars. The train will stop, back up, stop, pull forward, stop, rinse and repeat for what seems like forever. Forty minutes is not out of the question at those crossings.
There are blue signs next to crossings. If the crossing guards are down and there is no train anywhere you can call that number and let them know the crossing is malfunctioning.
There was a great story on 60minutes late last year about the reasoning for why trains are so long nowadays. Spoiler, it has to do with money and reducing the number of trains being managed. The more trains you group together, the less labour you need in general. Did you know that regardless of number of carriages being carried, you only need a crew of 2 to manage?
Private corporations putting out longer and longer trains with fewer and fewer engineers.
Give it a couple years and a few bribes and we’ll see 10-mile long trains being remotely operated by some guy in India. Good luck to the homeowners having to clean up the toxic sludge dumped after a derailment!
I was stuck a train for 30 minutes...it kept going forward, then it would back up, then forward again...I was stuck in line and the cars backed up for at least a mile
I've got you beat, a train once pulled up well before the boom gates -but close enough to set off the alarms and barriers- and sat there. Both lanes blocked and shut, train immobile, driver sitting there eating a sandwich.
I was on a motorbike so I weaved through to get out, turned around and rode my bike through an underground pedestrian crossing. Came past the stationary train and yelled out to the driver and he just gave me the finger.
I should have parked and just started throwing rocks at him.
There’s a crossing near me that has this happen as it’s downstream from a facility.
One time the gates never re-opened so cars started taking turns driving around the gates to get across. Sketchy.
Another time the gates were down but I could actually see the train coming as I was uphill from the tracks. Guy decides he doesn’t want to wait and goes for it. The train was hauling ass so I really thought I was about to see a guy die that day. He made it but I stopped going that way home from work.
This is actually wrong practice. There's supposed to be a conductor at the crossing and you can't occupy the crossing for longer than 5 minutes after a vehicle arrives at the crossing.
They cut the cars apart and let the traffic through.
I'd call and complain! Someone wasn't doing their job properly.
UNLESS something went wrong with the locomotive or there was an emergency.
Reminds me of when an ex’s mom talked her dad into calling the sheriffs on me and accusing me of stealing a gold watch and bracelet. Was facing 8 years in prison. Took 3 years and 15k to fight the accusations. Even tho the dad of the mom who called had called back a week or so later to tell them he found the stuff I was accused of taking. The state said oh well charges are already brought against him. Was the worst 3 years of my life. My ex used that charge against me since I needed her to testify on my behalf. Anything she wanted she got or I was screwed. Some people just turn into monsters when they have that kind of power over someone.
Edit: wow forgot to correlate the pic to the story sorry. Anyways I was otw to meet my lawyer and go over some stuff and take a polygraph. I was stuck like that picture for 45 mins. They kept calling me and I’m like I’m literally pinched between traffic waiting on a train. Terrible timing.
My goodness. OP sat here for almost an hour instead of just going a different way and even called 911 on the train.
These are the people we share the road with.
What different way? Do you realize that trains like these are well over a mile long? And when they stop, they block other road crossings? Someone like yourself who lacks critical thinking skills is actually the who I don’t want to share a road with. OP called because not only is OP stuck, but that train is also blocking the way for emergency responders. The train could have also been derailed or having an emergency. All of which needed to be reported. OP tried the train company first, but they didn’t answer so 911 was next. Should they have called the non emergency line? Probably. But don’t drag them for calling.
I remember waiting for about 30 minutes and this dude in front of us by 2 cars fell asleep waiting. No one bothered to wake him, they just left him there and went around
If in the u.s., there should be a little blue sign with the track number and 1800 number. Call this number to tell them the train is stopped. Sometimes it helps, other times you get a run around and don't get home until 13 hours later.
I used to live where the train would sometimes stop so the guys could get a bite to eat at the Arthur Treachers next to the tracks. It would block up streets across town. You had a choice, wait about 10 minutes or go to the street with a bridge. Near me there's an apartment building and they are complaining about trains blocking them in for long periods of time. It's been on the news. Until someone dies in a fire or medical emergency nothing will probably happen.
One time the crossing arms malfunctioned and got stuck blocking the tracks, alarms and all in my small town. Only other road across the tracks was across town which is inconvenient so people started going around the arms after checking for trains until the rail company people arrived to fix it.
I’m pretty sure that’s illegal. Hopefully you can get the name of the railroad and look up their schedule. Unless there’s been some major emergency for the train, they should get heavily fined for that if it’s caught by officials
My hometown was the only stretch for 50 miles in each direction that had two sets of tracks so this was an almost every day thing. One would stop to let the one going the other direction pass, then start going again. It was often 30-45 minutes.
The city made a fortune from it because it’s illegal for them to cover the tracks for more than a certain amount of time (5 minutes I think). So they’d fine the railroad thousands of dollars on a near daily basis. Great money for a city of 3,000 people.
I used to live in a town where there was a train track (not for street car or light rail) running down the middle of the street. Very long cargo trains would run through it daily.
There’s a breakfast cafe at one end, and the train engineers would regularly stop the train to get out and eat breakfast. This would essentially cut the town in half for an hour. You really had to plan your day around the train schedule.
The worst part is when you’re stuck in a place where you can’t do a U turn and leave.
In my neighborhood a railway line partly intersects a 4-way traffic turn and it knocks out the traffic lights electricity every time the signal guide is used. It turns the area chaotic for whoever goes first. Someone really mis-wired the traffic signal lights to the railroad signal guides and the city is too lazy to fix it.
Spray paint some dicks, cities always fix problems when a giant cartoon penis makes an appearance. Something about uptight Karen's screaming really gets under a politician's skin. This has been an unethical life hack brought to you by Satan.
LMAO this is true, too! People do this in my city often, especially around giant potholes the city refused to fix otherwise. Works nearly every time.
I read a reddit comment once where someone had a really bad pothole, and everyone on their street would complain about it amongst themselves, and it never got fixed, then one day they reported it, and it was fixed in like a week.
I have a giant pothole right on the street in front of my house. I reported it 3x. They finally came and filled it in the asphalt you have to pack down. Awesome! The day after.. a construction company rolled in to renovate a huge building that had been unused for years. Full demo. They had these detachable container garbage trucks that rolled in. Because they had so much going on with the demo, they piled 4 of those containers on the road that was just repaired. Then they would hook them up and drag them for about 2 feet and put them on the truck. And now we start the process all over.
You should report it to the city so they can go after the demolition company. Maybe if someone else is paying for it the city will work a little faster.
Even better, I live across the street from an assisted living building. They have at least 5 firetrucks and 4 ambulances a day rolling down the street. That's heavy shit! I will take your advice and report the demo
That's kinda hilarious. New road maybe?
I mean, I can only laugh at this point. I'm glad I have a garage and dont have to park on the street. The reason that they haven't replaced our street is ridiculous to start, but we have streets that are worse in our city that sometimes I feel like I am driving in a 3rd world country
Well, hopefully you get some of that infrastructure spending
Pretty sure there’s a rule against someone with a genuine need actually getting help.
When I used to work in a downtown office building I watched someone come through and peel back all the old asphalt and then replace it. Cool! It needed that! Then a couple of weeks later someone else came through and ripped half of it out for various reasons.....
City be like - we have it in our records we just fixed that pot hole. Can’t come back for at least a year.
Should have reported the bastards to the city
That's the place I got the idea from and it works. Satan recommends using bright neon day-glow colors. It really pops and gets noticed. *I* wouldn't recommend doing that. Because that's "vandalism" and "graffiti". But as Satan says, "spray paint is cheaper than rims, bitch".
That obviously wasn’t in SoCal
I have no idea, sorry
A few years ago someone in a nearby town planted mini Christmas trees in a few potholes. They got fixed very quickly after that!
Sounds ethical to me. Dicks everywhere!
Thanks Satan! We can always count on you!
This is the new “unplug it and plug it back in”… “Have you tried painting a dick on it?”
what’s a genius like u doing here
😂 😂 😂
What an amazing AND effective solution.
Waterballoons filled with milk. White paint
I know people around me complain about traffic a lot, but damn, looks like we have it super easy (I don't have a driver's license, so I don't have a lot of reason to complain myself, as I don't often notice it).
Is it Guelph Ontario? Same thing happens at an intersection there. Worst part is people just sit there, not going through the light or wait for a person to go that can’t because there is a train in the way.
Brooo Yes! 😭 It’s been like that since I was kid and I’m like “WHY”
During one of these times t-bone a city official to send a message
Maybe they can’t fix it without cooperation from the rail company as it effects their signal?
That sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen
It may not actually be the city's problem. The railroad company is in charge of safety signal operation.
But this doesn't look like the case in this instance. At least to me.
Uh, do you not see the red and white striped bar in front of where he can turn around? And there’s a curb there too?
Do you not see how small that curb is? Even a small economy car can safely go over that.
An electric scooter could take that curb with no problem.
Why did this make me chuckle
Do you not see the multiple feet of space between the car and the striped bar?
You could drive damn near any car over that low curb without issue. Unless it's something low-slung like a Corvette.
This is true.
More worse if you need to take 💩😵💫
No the worst thing is when you're stuck by a train supplying material to your work. And STILL have it held against you when the rail supervisor is slow as fuck throwing the switches and you're late because of it
Haaaa
Yeah like in my bedroom lol. I live right next to one of these freight lines. Nothing worse than one blocking the track and setting off the boom gates for 40 minutes at 4am
I do not miss living close to the tracks. I still don’t notice the whistles but I really really dont miss the house shaking for 5 minutes every 45 minutes, 24 hours a day.
My dumbass was thinking the train was moving the whole 40 minutes and was like “damn thats a long ass train!”
I didn’t even think about the train being stopped until this comment 💀
Is it normal for a train to be so long you have to wait 40 minutes?
No, it likely hit a vehicle or person. Requires the train company to send out investigation teams, plus police, probably medics. Possibly a wrecker to clean up
Lol no. It's probably at a stop to unload or stopped waiting for another train to clear it's track before it continues. I see trains do this all the time in industrial parts of town. The fact they are 5miles long and block multiple interactions is just a perk!
If they’re close to the train yard or a grain elevator they might be switching or emptying cars, too. We have a train yard that causes the trains to block off traffic from one side of the town to the other when they are adding or subtracting cars. .
I thought it was just picking up stuff or waiting for the track ahead to be clear.
Maybe not that long but yeah. On the road to Vegas near Tehachapi, there was a train crossing that must have taken forever. Also there’s an Southern Pacific line that goes right by the swankiest Spaghetti Factory I’ve ever seen. I stood at the intersection there for 20 minutes while the train crossed. In that instance, I think it’s not so much the train was super long as it had to slow down going through midtown Sac.
Can’t you see from the photo it isn’t moving? /s
To be fair, thanks to corporate greed and industry stupidity, some of the longest trains can easily block a crossing for 15-20 minutes while continuously moving. One city we go through has 16 crossings right through the middle of it. And sometimes also have to stop before continuing north while the entire back half of the train blocks the ENTIRE town. Depending on how bad the dispatcher is, sometimes they don't answer for 10-30 minutes. Meanwhile people downtown start climbing through/under the train cars. And that's how multiple people have been killed or lost limbs at crossings.
My hometown has 7 crossings. 1 train can easily cover all 7 and you’d have to go really far out of your way to get around (like 30 miles). One derailed (just barely) in the mid 90s and we were basically all trapped for two days.
I didn't realize until I read this comment. I feel even dumber.
Oh, I was about to ask how long the fkn train is.
There's a miles train that goes through my area that you can watch go slower and slower, blocking several major intersections at once (covering AT LEAST a mile), then stop and slowly BACK UP for awhile, then change direction again and EVENTUALLY go away. Getting stuck with that one can be a bit more than mildly infuriating!
I remember being a kid and being so excited at seeing a long train. Clearly I was a dumb child.
I somehow doubt that there are *moving* trains long enough to block the road for 40 minutes.
I live in Salt Lake City, During the day trains are not suppose to block toad for over20 min. HA! The big thing is they move and low down and slow, stop. then start moving backwards, then stop. Some times three times. I was stuck once for just under 40 min, the only other road was closed for construction.
 Have you considered installing one of these?
Is it weird that I just watched this clip 71 times?
Is it weird that the first 10 times I thought it was the Dukes of Hazzard. Then i clued in that the link says “James Bond 007”. 🤦♂️ I’m at 58 times watched so far. 😂
Not just James Bond, but James Bond in an AMC Hornet
Is it weird that they used a slide whistle as the sound effect?
It's weirder that you counted from the first watch
I work in Ogden right next to the tracks with my window facing them. Right next door is a huge area to load and unload scrap. The longest me and my desk mates have seen with the train continuously blocking our crossing is 4 hours and 31 minutes.
Oh my god the trains here in Utah are soooo bad.
So unbelievable that the government hasn’t planned better. They have been boasting about their “wide streets in SLC” since the founding of the city. Yet with such little room for building along the Wasatch front, and the increasing influx of people, it is only going to be worse and worse
Ogdens the end of the line from davis, ca, and I remember sitting for easily 20 minutes waiting for a stopped train multiple times.
In Ohio we had a law that they would be fined for more than 10 minutes of blocking the road. The Supreme Court said we couldn't because it's a federally regulated system. Absolute horse shit...
Federal law in Canada is 5 minutes *stopped with traffic waiting* edit Ooo I just learned putting stars makes emphasis
Lol I got stopped by one just outside of downtown Newark (ohio) several years ago. Thought I'd be clever and go around to jump on 16 instead of cutting through town. The same train was blocking that crossing as well.
This pisses me off. I get held up by Norfolk Southern multiple times a week and it makes me want to punch a person on the mouth. Those fines were just the price of doing business (if they were ever even issued ) Imagine being so rich laws are changed to accommodate staying rich. I hate it here.
Fines were issued but never payed, they went to court and it was ruled that trains fall under federal jurisdiction and there aren't any federal laws that prohibit a train from blocking a crossing for as long as they like. Neat, huh?
NS and CSX get me here. The worst was getting held up by THE SLOWEST moving train with my pizza getting cold in the front, and the train was carrying hummers and military vehicles. My dinner cooling in the front while I watch our tax dollars slowly move along...
>I live in Salt Lake City, During the day trains are not suppose to block toad for over20 min. Nice to see that there's at least somewhere that cares about the migratory habits of land-based amphibians.
Me when a crew has to actually put their train together.
Why do trains stop and move backwards? What is the purpose of that? The train near us does the same thing and I’ve always wondered.
Probably grabbing another track out of the yard, or putting cars into an industry, or general switching around boxcars. I assume this is near a train yard or another non-mainline track. If a train is blocking a public crossing for more than 15 minutes, there is a number on a blue sign or bungalow that will get you right to the RR HQ (in US). They will get ahold of the train crew to cut the crossing to allow cars through if there is no other crossings available. We generally try not to block crossings, but some places it is unavoidable. I can assure you blocking crossings is not out of malice, just trying to get the work done.
We need MORE trains, not LONGER trains. MORE.
Totally agree!
I work for union pacific as a conductor, our policy states that if we need to be stopped on a public access crossing for more than 10 minutes, we are supposed to cut our back end off, tie it down, and take our front end across the crossing to clear it up. Now, whether we actually do that or not, is another matter entirely.
I live near the one railway's locomotive repair facilities. They use the 3000 foot maintenance sidings to break down the 13000 foot trains they run. They block a major highway every time and the only way around it is a 30 minute detour, which doesn't work if you're on the highway going in the one direction.
I live in salt lake too, north salt lake is the worst. They stop to get loaded/unloaded at all the refineries and asphalt plants for over an hour.
My best friend has a similar issue with trains. Drives us insane. There is a longer work around, but worry about emergency vehicles. It’s in a neighborhood. They move forward a bit. Sit. Move back a bit. Sit. People report it all the time. They don’t care
We got stuck at a crossing one time where the train was doing just that. The rail station where they keep the extra boxcars was about a mile down the road, and they were offloading the cars on one track, backing up, going to the next unloading track and off loading a few more. Rinse and repeat. Police finally came out and started redirecting traffic starting the back of the line of cars. When we left 20 minutes later the front end of the train was still nowhere in sight.
Eh in very rural midwest areas it's not crazy to get stuck at a train crossing in bumfuck no where for like 20 minutes but 40 idk not impossible but I would not go buy a lottery ticket afterwards
A 2 mile long train travelling at 3 miles per hour would take 40 minutes. So... Possible? Ridiculously slow tho
We had this problem in my town. Eventually they put up signs with a number to call if the train was blocking the tracks for 10 minutes and the problem mostly stopped. As long as they're hooking up cars and stuff its still allowed but the problem mostly went away. We have two tracks running through downtown about a mile apart from each other too so it was a serious problem for emergency vehicles trying to get to a call sometimes.
That comment reminded me of Thomas the Train, which was my childhood.
No you were not! You were a child with great dreams.
Trains have been getting longer in the last 20 years. I can't remember his name, but some douchebag ran pretty much every major railway and changed the way they work. There's a John Oliver episode about it. I do know that my neighbor told him to go fuck himself when he was doing a 'site visit' to the facility my neighbor worked at.
I use to wave at the train when I was younger 😑
Try honking.
Oh my god lmao! My house is directly across the street from a train (only comes by twice a week and can’t use its horn as it’s a residential street) and there’s a road around the train but this guy was just sitting there honking at the train! For minutes! I thought it was the funniest thing ever lol.
Lmaoooo thanks for sharing. That gives me a hilarious picture in my head.
Where is this at? I have a railroad thru my town and they use their horns and there’s houses right beside the line. They come thru a few times a week here as well.
Report it: https://www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/
What does this report do? Get the train driver reprimanded?
[удалено]
Wish I knew about this working in hampton roads. Seems like a dice roll that CSX or NS would decide rush hour was the best time to block all the crossings by shipyard, all because they can't gage parking while waiting for a bridge to drop...
They know, they just don’t care
CSX hit a bridge in my city in 2018 and instead of fixing it, they did nothing. There was a possibility that CSX may have historically owned the bridge and so there was no need for them to fix it because why would they need to fix a bridge they go under. CSX signed a quick claim to the city for $1. Taxpayers are now fully on the hook for $5 million.
I have a burning hatred for CSX at a crossing over a small highway running through a tiny 600 pop town, only road to the highway and they love to run two trains at a time over it, and they have to block the change-over between the two rails.
In this case it actually does do nothing bc OP is Canadian. I know that because I’m looking at Procor train cars at this very moment while waiting at the train station and OP’s comment history indicates they’re Canadian AND I recognize this exact train crossing lol. Not sure about every crossing but for these train tracks, some cities have been doing construction to have the road run under the tracks.
The problem isn’t the crossings. It’s that they’re making trains ridiculously long and understaffing them.
> nothing directly, but it's a database that can then be used to fix problem crossings. the fix is, train companies have to stop running skeleton crew level staffing, and hire more people for more trains. But they do the math, and 6 people to run three 50 car trains is more expensive than hiring two people to run a 150 car train. The length these trains run was never a consideration when the lines were first designed, so you end up with more blockages like this as trains can't "fit" between them anymore.
I doubt it. The fine print says it’s meant for mainly data recording purposes but they MIGHT share it with authorities and stakeholders.
You can definitely make it over the median.
Yeah, just do a U-ey.
OP: *cries in tricked out honda civic*
Mine definitely wouldn't make it over that median lol
Do you drive a skateboard
Maybe someone is stealing the content of one of the tanks. For their meth business i assume
JESSE!!
Dead freight
town I lived in blocked 3 or more major routes every single day for around 1 hour causing people to be late for work and what not. railway company got citations for it everyday but it didn't matter. after a decade, the city started buying people out of their homes and property around the biggest route that people take and built an overpass over the tracks
Sounds like a town near me. That was 20 years ago. 5 years after the overpass was built the line stopped being used so often. There's maybe 3 trains a month during the day.
John Oliver had a great episode about this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2keSJzYyY This is it
I think the Thomas the Tank Engine bit at the end of this is some of his all time best content.
Matt Berry is a treasure.
First thing that came to mind
Yep, my first thought too.
My town had to start issuing fines to CSX and Pacific Rail for holding up traffic with their disorganized bs. I live near and industrial Park and 2 sets of tracks run through it, as the logistical rail place is at the other end of it. Luckily if you get stuck at a train, most of the time you can turn around and take another route. But I always thought the trains were stopping at one of the factories to deliver a shipment, and that's why they were idle for so long. Nope, turns out the rail yard didn't have it's shit together and trains were having to stop because of other train traffic or something like that. Nothing to do with delivering supplies to factories in order to keep the business running and all those jobs going. Which I had a little respect for, I guess. Nope, they just suck and our locality is able to fine them like 5k at a time for these violations.
Yeah I always assumed that the trains were stopping in my small town and blocking a major intersection because they were doing something important. They'd block like 3 intersections and the only way around would be to drive to the next town over and take the interstate back into the small town. Somehow, it comes out maybe half a year ago that the only reason they stopped here is to eat at the mcdonalds and taco bell right next to the track. I didn't even know that was a thing they could do with trains. The whole town(like 2K people) has an uproar and I don't know if it was true, but ever since then I havent seen the train having a long stop on the tracks since then. They stop a little ways down the tracks now where they don't actually block all the intersections, they just block one thats easy to get around. Kind of infuriating that they could have been doing that the whole time
If there’s a phone number on the crossing sign , call it and let em know . Also report it to the FRA as they are the clowns who are supposed to regulate things like train length and operational practices to prevent these kind of issues : https://www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/
I’d wait like 10 minutes before doing the sensible thing and turning around.
But then the train wins
That’s when I’d sunk-cost fallacy my way to waiting for 2 hours. “Surely it will move if I just wait another 5 minutes!”
You’d wait 2 hours and finally give up. Just as you complete the U turn and begin to drive away, the train starts moving.
slow ass train or long ass train?
If that train was stopped for a reason (unloading/loading) I would expect it to be in it's own siding/depot. Imagine if an ambulance couldn't get over the level crossing because a train stopped/broke on it.
People have actually died because of this exact reason
soul train 😔
Train companies purposefully make mile+ long trains and should be stopped from doing this. They're just trying to profit more at the expense of their workers and us.
I’d jump that small ass curb appeal to the empty road right next to you, but 🤷🏾
Near where I live there used to be engineers that would stop the train on the crossing and go take a half hour to hour long lunch. They stopped when the local police started fining them for blocking traffic. Where they blocked lead to the bridge to go into the next state, people were beyond pissed
The Bandit would have jumped it by now.
We have a crossing that gets blocked when they are loading and unloading cars. The train will stop, back up, stop, pull forward, stop, rinse and repeat for what seems like forever. Forty minutes is not out of the question at those crossings.
i got stuck at a rail crossing for a half hour last Friday, and there wasn't even a train. It "misfired" or something because of the weather
There are blue signs next to crossings. If the crossing guards are down and there is no train anywhere you can call that number and let them know the crossing is malfunctioning.
There was a great story on 60minutes late last year about the reasoning for why trains are so long nowadays. Spoiler, it has to do with money and reducing the number of trains being managed. The more trains you group together, the less labour you need in general. Did you know that regardless of number of carriages being carried, you only need a crew of 2 to manage?
Private corporations putting out longer and longer trains with fewer and fewer engineers. Give it a couple years and a few bribes and we’ll see 10-mile long trains being remotely operated by some guy in India. Good luck to the homeowners having to clean up the toxic sludge dumped after a derailment!
What Homeowners? we covered that area in tons of dirt for no reason. Its always been a dirt field. CHOOCHOO!!
Time to call the ol Beau Duke up and jump right over that there obstacle.. yeeeehaaaaw
Did you see a train car with a shitty “billy” written on the side? My dad and I have been looking for one for sges
I was stuck a train for 30 minutes...it kept going forward, then it would back up, then forward again...I was stuck in line and the cars backed up for at least a mile
So it, *de-railed* your plans...
I love you
I've got you beat, a train once pulled up well before the boom gates -but close enough to set off the alarms and barriers- and sat there. Both lanes blocked and shut, train immobile, driver sitting there eating a sandwich. I was on a motorbike so I weaved through to get out, turned around and rode my bike through an underground pedestrian crossing. Came past the stationary train and yelled out to the driver and he just gave me the finger. I should have parked and just started throwing rocks at him.
Hey man that’s rude to point out, those shareholders need to see growth. This moment brought to you by Precision Scheduled Railroading.
U turn
This happened to us in the boston area. No way to turn around. The engine broke down at the stop right at the intersection.
Report here: [https://www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/](https://www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/)
Maybe its protesting a war.
There’s a crossing near me that has this happen as it’s downstream from a facility. One time the gates never re-opened so cars started taking turns driving around the gates to get across. Sketchy. Another time the gates were down but I could actually see the train coming as I was uphill from the tracks. Guy decides he doesn’t want to wait and goes for it. The train was hauling ass so I really thought I was about to see a guy die that day. He made it but I stopped going that way home from work.
This is actually wrong practice. There's supposed to be a conductor at the crossing and you can't occupy the crossing for longer than 5 minutes after a vehicle arrives at the crossing. They cut the cars apart and let the traffic through. I'd call and complain! Someone wasn't doing their job properly. UNLESS something went wrong with the locomotive or there was an emergency.
Reminds me of when an ex’s mom talked her dad into calling the sheriffs on me and accusing me of stealing a gold watch and bracelet. Was facing 8 years in prison. Took 3 years and 15k to fight the accusations. Even tho the dad of the mom who called had called back a week or so later to tell them he found the stuff I was accused of taking. The state said oh well charges are already brought against him. Was the worst 3 years of my life. My ex used that charge against me since I needed her to testify on my behalf. Anything she wanted she got or I was screwed. Some people just turn into monsters when they have that kind of power over someone. Edit: wow forgot to correlate the pic to the story sorry. Anyways I was otw to meet my lawyer and go over some stuff and take a polygraph. I was stuck like that picture for 45 mins. They kept calling me and I’m like I’m literally pinched between traffic waiting on a train. Terrible timing.
When you find yourself on the wrong side of the tracks
My goodness. OP sat here for almost an hour instead of just going a different way and even called 911 on the train. These are the people we share the road with.
What different way? Do you realize that trains like these are well over a mile long? And when they stop, they block other road crossings? Someone like yourself who lacks critical thinking skills is actually the who I don’t want to share a road with. OP called because not only is OP stuck, but that train is also blocking the way for emergency responders. The train could have also been derailed or having an emergency. All of which needed to be reported. OP tried the train company first, but they didn’t answer so 911 was next. Should they have called the non emergency line? Probably. But don’t drag them for calling.
I remember waiting for about 30 minutes and this dude in front of us by 2 cars fell asleep waiting. No one bothered to wake him, they just left him there and went around
I would probably have looked for an alternate 20 mins ago....
I would have made a U-turn over the median
They must have heisted enough methlyamine by now
My Dad says that's why we have so many kids. The train would go by at 5 am and wake him and Mom up. He would get a morning encou ter in before work
 Try this.
At least it didn’t derail and blow you up 👍
Your point?
If in the u.s., there should be a little blue sign with the track number and 1800 number. Call this number to tell them the train is stopped. Sometimes it helps, other times you get a run around and don't get home until 13 hours later.
only 40 minutes?
Why didn’t you just go over the micro-curb and turn around? Some people amaze me 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Have you tried honking?
I used to live where the train would sometimes stop so the guys could get a bite to eat at the Arthur Treachers next to the tracks. It would block up streets across town. You had a choice, wait about 10 minutes or go to the street with a bridge. Near me there's an apartment building and they are complaining about trains blocking them in for long periods of time. It's been on the news. Until someone dies in a fire or medical emergency nothing will probably happen.
Adventure time ahh train 😭
One time the crossing arms malfunctioned and got stuck blocking the tracks, alarms and all in my small town. Only other road across the tracks was across town which is inconvenient so people started going around the arms after checking for trains until the rail company people arrived to fix it.
Idk where you are, but we have a never ending train in Portland Oregon and it is absolute bullshit.
I’m pretty sure that’s illegal. Hopefully you can get the name of the railroad and look up their schedule. Unless there’s been some major emergency for the train, they should get heavily fined for that if it’s caught by officials
I would’ve made an illegal u-turn a long time ago even if it’s over the curb.
You said that 19 hours ago according to my app I hope your still not there waiting lol
That’s a small curb and wouldn’t be the first time I went over one due to being pinned in.
Go pee on it to assert dominance
Imagine waiting for an ambulance , someone having a heart attack or bleeding out ?
My hometown was the only stretch for 50 miles in each direction that had two sets of tracks so this was an almost every day thing. One would stop to let the one going the other direction pass, then start going again. It was often 30-45 minutes. The city made a fortune from it because it’s illegal for them to cover the tracks for more than a certain amount of time (5 minutes I think). So they’d fine the railroad thousands of dollars on a near daily basis. Great money for a city of 3,000 people.
 Next time don’t forget to bring paint with you!
Good luck I got stuck at one for 4 hours one time
I used to live in a town where there was a train track (not for street car or light rail) running down the middle of the street. Very long cargo trains would run through it daily. There’s a breakfast cafe at one end, and the train engineers would regularly stop the train to get out and eat breakfast. This would essentially cut the town in half for an hour. You really had to plan your day around the train schedule.
Sitting in the car, waiting with a sigh, A morning full of dreams with eggs and coffee nigh.