Trouble On the J- Part 1, Frankfort, IL.

Well heres a short version of the story.

As I was driving through Frankfort, I saw the tail end of a stopped EJ&E manifest. I drove alongside it through residential neighborhoods until the road ended. I then parked my car there and ran across a field towards the front of the train. When I got there, I noticed the crossing gates activating over and over again and the block signal down the line turning red then green. Also a crewmember walked all the way to the back of his train. I was waiting about half an hour there, being amused by the pissed off automobile drivers due to the gates. An hour later, still no progress. The engineer climbs out and talks to me about 20 minutes. He told me about the crewmember who walked to the back of the train to inspect the EOT and about air brake problems. Police arrived to control traffic and assist a fender bender near the crossing. Soon the train wil depart. See that in part 2.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• EJ&E
• Manifest
• Trouble
• Railroad
• Freight
• Engine
• Locomotive

[FlyBikes089]

Nice the video (thumb up!)

[Andrewsaxamophone]

That is alot of safetran hybrid!

[doodlejtr]

Indeed, they are linked in a common operating manner. That is, they are both designed to operate in a "fail safe" mode so that if the controlling circuits are complete, the gates remain off & block signals remain clear. If anything "breaks" the circuit (or "fails"), then the systems cause block signals to go red and crossing flashers to function. Normal operation will not return until the integrity of the electrical circuits is restored. Can be caused by broken rails & bad insulated joints.

[legominifigure7]

MAYBE YOU SHOULDNT TYPE IN ALL CAPS!

[JabeW1996]

HEY DO YOU LIVE IN FRANKFORT? I DO.

[gaycowboy31]

cool video man that is a railroad I have yet to photograph and hope to before CN ruins it

[EMD645E]

That can make for a long night can't it. It's times like that I'm glad I'm on the engine and not the signal man that has to go out to do repairs in that mess.

[L324RT12]

I guess all of the above. We were stopped one night about 10 cars clear of a detector waiting on a local in front of us to clear up. Just on the other side of the detector was a X-ing. It was comming a hell of a storm & lightning hit the detector shanty. The detector goes ape-shit, & the crossing signals activate, the gates go down, & then right back up & we get to run on reds for the next 4 blocks...ugh. The detector shanty looked like a damn christmas tree when the lightning hit it!!

[trainman6944]

Hmmm.. good point. Guess it was just one of those days... off subject, my question is.. how does the lightning do that? I've seen it happen but wasnt sure. Does it have to strike the tracks or the electrical system or something?

[L324RT12]

Odd considering block signals are in no way tied into the crossing devices...I have seen a lightning strike cause this tho.

[trainman6944]

Nice vid!

[trainman6944]

Not too sure about that one.. Considering the block signals were malfunctioning as well, and backing up didnt cure the problem, I dont believe the train has anything to do with it. Plus if you watch the second part of this video, it does indeed confirm that it was a malfunction of the signals that was eventually fixed. ( not arguing, just stating facts :) )