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Caption: Remembering the GEXR: Here is a shot back in February 2015 with no G&W orange and yellow in the power. A daylight run on a nice sunny day of GEXR 584 (I think was the train symbol) crosses Weber Street, very close to its termination of Kitchener yard. The LRT construction was in its very early stages, and the original railway crossing warning 'X' was still in place. I still don't understand why some crossings (like this one) over spur lines just get this sign and no signals for crossing protection, where other less busy roads get signals. Weber St. is a main road that runs north-south through Kitchener-Waterloo. Nonetheless, this is all history now. The power is LLPX 2210-RLK 4001.
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This is great Kevin. A daylight run in the winter as well! Thanks for posting.
Beautiful shot Kevin!! Just love it!! I got a shot of 584 going over Weber st too this past summer, similar to yours but of course in the opposite direction lol. Around 8:15pm when they were heading north. Wish I could have seen a weekend extra where I’d have a good chance at getting some southbound shots in daylight but I’m happy for you for managing to capture this!
Hopefully my shot will make it in here someday!
Also just curious, do you remember them blowing the horn at all for Weber st on this day? Apparently point of installing the crossing gates were due to expansion of the road at this location which of course increases traffic. Gates were added late in 2015 from what I remember and road was expanded to 4 lanes sometime in 2014 (same time the overpass at the main line was added).
Kevin, you’ll find that a lot of what happened in terms of what crossings have crossbucks and what don’t is essentially due to grandfathering
Weber St does have good sightlines and in the old days would have been fine for crossbucks..
Guelph St does not and someone probably identified a need or there were incidents so they upgraded a few decades ago… the feds also fund some safety upgrades and railways/municipalities jump on them from time to time but.. it’s piecemeal, one crossing at a time.
For example many crossings on GJRY are crossbucks despite a no whistle bylaw in Guelph, both would predate the modern laws and until you make a change, nothing really has to change, it’s grandfathered. If you try for a no whistle bylaw today all crossings would have to be flashers and gates! And this can be exampled with the GRR/CP Waterloo through Preston, it was crossbucks in places until recently, to get the no-whistle the crossbucks had to be removed and replaced with gates – I am not sure if they succeeded in approving no whistles on the CP side. CN side, still blows all whistles as still crossbucks.
Weber St did get a signal upgrade as part of the upgrades to 4 lanes eventually..
It’s about $150-500k per crossing to put in fully automatic with gates depending on the complexity, it’s not cheap.
That’s how I see it, but I’m no expert in signals or the law, just what I’ve observed.
Steve, with regards to the discussion on crossing protection and why different roads get different types of protection, I actually had a thought in mind about the Ahrens/Breightaupt st crossing which I was hoping to seek your opinion on.
I always thought it was quite odd and rather dangerous to give traffic traveling northbound on Ahrens st the right of way to proceed straight through the intersection and over the tracks which are only protected by the ‘X’ (no lights) as the Social Arts building completely blocks the view of tracks for northbound traffic and to top it all of, it is a non-whistle crossing so there isn’t really any way to warn northbound traffic of an oncoming northbound train.
The GEXR flag manager mentioned to me a while back that there has been quite a handful of accidents at that crossing in the past several decades but the rules never seemed to change.
Obviously, it’s much safer now with Ahrens st being converted into a dead-end due to the expansion of the station platform in 2011 meaning a lot less northbound traffic but still, do you have a take on that and know much as to why Ahrens st only got the ‘X’.
With the OBRY line in Brampton, a while back I was told that the Railroad st crossing which lies next to the busy Halton Sub (and happens to be a fairly busy road) only got the ‘X’ because back in the day when the CN/CP interchange track was still in use and rail traffic was much heavier, the signals would have always been getting mixed up as to if the train was going to cross the crossing or not as I assume the technology wasn’t as strong. I don’t quite know exactly if that’s the case or not but I’m just remembering something I was told.
I got a pretty decent shot at Ahrens/Brightaupt in full sun last summer of 584 with the Arts building incoperated which I hope will make it in here someday which is also part of the reason I ask. Hope you’d like it????
Steve, sorry about the question marks at the end of my last comment, I ment to add the smiley face like you normally use at the end of your comments but for some reason, it doesn’t quite work for me and in the end gets replaced by several ?.
Graydon, I think I already explained it and I don’t think you understand what a crossbuck is. A railway crossing requires you to yield when a train is coming. You must stop, no cars have the right of way, the train does. If you fail to stop, it’s a fine and demerit points
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/railway-crossings.shtml
Also – again, it’s all grandfathered. Think about when the crossing protection was installed…. how many decades ago? 90? Might want to read up on the Canadian Transportation act , rail section for more details.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-10.4/
You’re going to have to read and learn if you want more answers, i’m not an expert in crossing protection matters. Sorry
- Steve