Crossing gates and power outages

[Stephen Tashiro]

Do railroad crossing gates continue to operate when there has been a power outage in their part of the city?

I know that traffic lights in my city don't operate when there has been a power outage, but I've never noticed whether the crossing gates work.

[Kev Williams]

I would think they wouldn't, but then, neither would the signal lights for the engineers, which would lead me to believe they'd be going pretty slow with the horns a-blarin' at any road crossings...?

[Howard Garner]

The signals the engineer sees do have a battery backup system.
I am not usre about the crossing gates.

Howard Garner
a rail fan

[Rod Sheridan]

I worked for a company that made the chargers for the trackside batteries that operated the lights and gates.

The crossing equipment should work during outages............Regards, Rod.

[Myk Rian]

They get all screwed up during close encounters.

[Rick Moyer]

I worked for a company that made the chargers for the trackside batteries that operated the lights and gates.

The crossing equipment should work during outages............Regards, Rod.

I know someone who backed into one of those stainless "buildings" near a crossing with a large dump truck. His insurance paid $50,000 to repair it, so I certainly hope there is something in there that would keep the lights working!

[Ronald Blue]

The crossing signals do have batteries to keep them operating for a period of time after a power outage.

[John K Jordan]

The crossing signals do have batteries to keep them operating for a speriod of time after a power outage.

Since the RR crossing gates are counter balanced I'd be surprised if the batteries were not rated for an extended power outage. The little batteries in my electric security gate controller are supposed to open and close the two 8' gates 400 time if the power goes out.

JKJ

[Bill Orbine]

The school buses and fuel trucks stop at every railroad crossings in my area......I guess it's not worth taking the chances whether there's power failure or malfunctioning gates.

[Jerome Stanek]

The school buses and fuel trucks stop at every railroad crossings in my area......I guess it's not worth taking the chances whether there's power failure or malfunctioning gates.

Its law in most states here we have many crossings that are only marked with cross bucks

[Myk Rian]

Yeah. State laws.

[Rick Moyer]

Yeah. State laws.

Actually, I believe it's federal motor carrier rules. Hazmat at least requires stopping at all RR crossings.

[John Sanford]

Its law in most states here we have many crossings that are only marked with cross bucks

It's FEDERAL law, echoed by State laws which likely cover all non-Class B school buses as well. Commercial vehicles carrying in excess of 12(?) people or carrying hazmat are required to stop at all railroad crossing unless the crossing is marked "EXEMPT". The only exempt crossing I've ever seen is on US Highway 95, between Henderson, NV and Boulder City, NV, at, ironically enough, Railroad Pass. The tracks were laid to serve the building of Hoover Dam and run from the Las Vegas Valley over to Boulder City. The tracks are paved over, but kept intact "just in case." I'm sure there are plenty of other exempt crossings, I've just never encountered 'em.

[Yonak Hawkins]

The school buses and fuel trucks stop at every railroad crossings....

The school buses sit and wait for several minutes. It's very annoying to motorists.

[Ed Labadie]

As been said, crossing gates have battery back-ups.

CN has even went as far as putting automatic back-up generators at the crossings here......

Ed