This is a video I made of an Amtrak Train in Sanford Florida stopping at a railroad crossing signal to put flares out in the road because the crossing signals are malfunctioning.
Gee! Thanx again! Isn't tnis amazing that we are actually having a musicological analysis of the MELODY of something that to others is just a regular train?? I am not too much of a train freak, but this sound I remember well from my early childhood (2-4). We lived on Edgewood Dr. Royal Oak MI, relatively close to a rail track. It's now engraved in my brains I guess and wakes up all sentiments... Thanks again! Will play it for myself on the keyboard!
Ay first I thought you were screwing around with the gates to get the train to stop, but after watching more and some of your other videos, I know you wouldn't do that. Nice catch and good that you called it in..
Good of you to report the malfucntion. Thank you. BUT WHY STOP when the signals PROPERLY OPERATED and closed the crossing? Wastes time, fuel, flares, causes slight passenger discomfort. (I would have extinguished the flares and taken them home for July 4th.)
Yeah right.. That would be incriminating me in a illegal activity. I know a few places where crossing malfunction or reset so I go to them knowing in advance that they do that. Thanks for the comment.
Lightning video I have up here and If we have water Spouts I will record them. I don't know what made the bells ring shake the camera. And if the gates had stayed up I know how to get them down for a brief minute to get my camera back. LOL
I will probably use it as a secondary camera. two different views at the same time. I can't let that camera go!!! It got me into a movie in the theatres last year and it's on DVD today. The movie I was in for 30 seconds riding a rollercoaster I filmed myself is called LIFE IN A DAY.
Thanks Amtrakboy. I could make the gates go down by putting a wire ,pipe or jumper cables from rail to rail. it shorts the circuit and makes the gates go down then back up but I don't do that in my video's.The crossing in my video does that all the time and the CSX workers say that's normal for that crossing because of a signal ahead that resets the crossing when a train goes by heading North. Thanks
The flare has a life span of 10 minutes and is for the cars at the crossing. Even if a train came behind it it would have to stop and throw a new flare down
Hahaha. How funny attaching your camcorder to the gate. Interesting view. First "Gate's eye view"! Would be funny if the malfunction then ceased and you could not get your camera until the next train. (Does the pavement behind you reveal that another track had crossed the road?) Was the bell's rhythmic current draw causing the gate to shake the camcorder? Interesting! Please keep doing your fun and interesting videos. Hope you'll do lightning and waterspouts. Thank you.
I through the flare to the side because the train was gone and I didn't want a car running it over or a child picking it up and getting burned. When the train went through the crossing there is no need for it anymore.
There's this one marketplace in Texas right next to a busy railroad, trains every five minutes. The marketplace is called "Ham Orchards" in case you want to do some extra filming ;)
I honestly don't even are why the need of the flare since the crossing arms were down before, during and after the train passed. It's nice they stopped to check to make sure things were ok though.
I seen that happen one time down the street from my home. It was late at night and I car had to slam on it's brakes or it would have went right under it. Very Scary
Just as with your camera shot from the gate itself' its a good thing Alan you take the inishetive to report every problem crossing you see. Amtrack & CSX should pay you for alearting them every time you see a problem! From the pay role of the signal masters office.
The railroad worker arrived and said it was over heating in the main box that's why the gates were malfunctioning. He also seen me do it and didn't care. Also you got to take a chance in life to get the right video. There are so many laws everyone breaks one everyday of there lives and you don't even know it. LOL
Thank you, English. What is a "treadle? We use track circuit shunt and motion detection. I own signal relays and batteries. Often we have enough batteries to operate detection and signals for a week. (Of course, this depends on how much use.) The problem is there is no indication if the system fails. Chinese blue (o) not lighted indicates thathe system has failed. Therefore one knows to look for trains. There are many level crossings without gates (booms). (Which are kept up by power.)
We have has something like that happen here in a small town when a train was going by fast or even slow the gates would go back up when the train was still going by and wouldn't come back down !
Wow! Man! This is super! Thanks! In some countries chords are named in different way. What could be the chord you mentioned in say C major? Tone by tone? c e g b-flat c#? Can't figure this out...
Good catch! Good of you to report it. Thank you. But why stop and lay fusees when the signals ARE OPERATING PROPERLY and closing the crossing? What a waste for everyone, including making drivers wait. One driver turned around. Did you look for anything, plant matter or whatever is electrically conductive, shunting the track? I would have cleaned the flangeways. Did you see the signal maintainer and learn the cause? Thank you.
The signal master? How do you have the number for that lol? Do you call the general number or is there a number on the gate box thing?? Interesting. At least you did the right thing, idk if I would have known what to do.
I own some bells. They draw much current when their contacts close and energize the coil. That current draw may be briefly affecting (starving) the gate motor, causing uneveness. Or maybe reverse EMF from the coil is affecting the motor! The clapper hitting the bell could not be causing enough vibration to shake the gate. Hope he installed a cooling fan in the "Instrument case" I call relay cabinet or shanty. That action is unacceptable.
I wonder if the track sensors that were supposed to control the crossing signals had been interfered with by animals? Perhaps an armadillo? That would seem to need precautionary measure to keep the animals away, not just a fix of the sensors. Additionally, I noticed the overhead gantry across the road which seems logical as this is evidently an industrial area with lots of evidence of large trucks in the area.
There's nothing in that area of the road in the beginning of your video the trainman came out and put down two road flares and at 4:45 you can clearly see it's a road flare that is flaming and you picked it up at 5:24 and threw it in the rocks.
Love trains myself. I always wondered how to get an Amtrak train to stop for no reason at all. Hahahahahaha!!!!! Well, i guess that this is one way to get a train to stop. Usually the train would stop at the station as we all know. For an Amtrak train to stop for a weird reason is very very unlikely but I should say that it could happen where a train stops for an unusual reason. Lol!!!!! Well, this was as reason but I bet it fooled the engineers of these trains loo…. I still remember this and I will tell this story. Well, when I was in elementary school, I always wondered what it would bee like to ride in a freight train engine. Well, it happened one Friday morning and I still remember it. I don’t know how this happened but I was talking to someone and I stated that I would love to see about riding in a freight train engine. Well, the train was by the school well it would come by freight and Amtrak because the school where I attended was near the tracks. You would just go out the gate and on the other side the tracks were their. Anyways, someone had talked with the right people because one morning I was brought to the gate of my school. Their we waited. You will never guess what happened next. A right moment and the right time came perfectly. A freight train stopped by the school and we went from the gate out to the train. It was idling. We were instructed to climb in the engine and we did. I got a soda from the engineer and a shirt. Wel, I got to operate the engine for a while. I rode on the freight engine for about a half hour. Someone was behind the train following by car so we could turn around and get back to the school. It was really weird though for this kind of thing to happen. This was not a normal day at all and it is not normal to see a train stop right in Groton of the school. Whoops in front of the school and actually getting on it. I still to this day remember it like it was yesterday. This was an unusual thing for a kid in elementary school to have happen and even for anyone. Normal situation, nobody is allowed even in an Amtrak engine let alone a freight train engine it was arranged to have this happen though. Still it is these unusual thing to happen. On a normal basis it is very strange for a train to stop and get to ride in the engine. Hahahahaha!!!! This was an event that only happens maybe once in a life time. Something I will always remember. I will never forget this day though having a train stop right in front of me like a bus practically and beeing able to get on it and ride in the engine….. I would say this this event was cool but on the other hand very strange hahahahahahaha!!!! But this actually did happen to me one time now my adult life I still remember that event like it was yesterday. Having a freight train stop right in front of me and beeing told to climb aboard it. This was both very strange and unusual but very exciting at the same time.
FYI they are called "activation failures" and most of the time they are still working cause they have been fixed already or a stupid person reported a working gate cause they are ignorant.
"treadle"? The advantage of Chinese level crossing signals is that if a total failure, the blue light dark indicates that there is no protection and everyone should look. American (o)T(o) in total failure indicate no train. If the "wig-wag" flasher relay fails with armature contact between the left lamp contact and right lamp contact, current goes through BOTH (o)T(o) !
