Questions about American cattle crossings.

[JonMyrlennBailey]

1. In America, do cattle ever have the right of way over trains at any crossings? If so, how are train drivers warned that cattle are crossing ahead?

2. To make trails where cows, especially sizable herds, may cross tracks in Trainz, what should the Surveyor builder consider to make such crossings authentic?

 

[pware]

1. In America, do cattle ever have the right of way over trains at any crossings? If so, how are train drivers warned that cattle are crossing ahead?

Let us assume a fully loaded coal or ore train approaching a cattle crossing at 110 km/h (or whatever that translates to in mph). At the same time Ferdinand the bull, chomping on grass on one side of the "cattle crossing", decides that it is time to get "frisky" with Daisy the cow on the other side of the crossing. Who is going to win, the train, Ferdinand or Daisy?

2. To make trails where cows, especially sizable herds, may cross tracks in Trainz, what should the Surveyor builder consider to make such crossings authentic?

I would say much the same as he/she would in constructing a road crossing without lights or boom gates. There are a number of cattle grids available on the DLS and/or built in and they would provide a starting point. I would also suspect that any such cattle crossings would not be built without gates and fences.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Google Images can help you answer your own questions

 

[Christopher824]

1. In America, do cattle ever have the right of way over trains at any crossings? If so, how are train drivers warned that cattle are crossing ahead?

2. To make trails where cows, especially sizable herds, may cross tracks in Trainz, what should the Surveyor builder consider to make such crossings authentic?

1. NO !!!

2. Farm Crossing Twin Track <kuid2:68236:23007:3>

There is also a single track, these are just scenery, you need to make the animation on top of it.

 

[RHKluckhohn]

1. In America, do cattle ever have the right of way over trains at any crossings? If so, how are train drivers warned that cattle are crossing ahead?

A little more explication: In the U.S., anyway, RR rights of way are the private property of the railroad. Level crossings of any type are also, and the trains have the right of way. The RR has the responsibility for maintenance. Public roadways are the subject of legal agreements. Typically the protective equipment is owned and maintained by the RR. People or other livestock wandering about the right of way are trespassing, even in unfenced areas of traditional movement.

:B~)

 

[pware]

To add to what :B~) has said, in many other countries the railway right of way is owned by the government who, like governments almost everywhere, are often pressured by various lobby groups such as local farmers. This can result in "farmers crossings" being placed along the track to provide crossing rights for their animals and tractors.

EDIT: This reminds me of one such example here in NSW. When the South Coast Railway was being built from Sydney in the late 1800s by the State Government, it had to cross one farmer's property. The plan called for a small cutting to be made through a hill on his property but the farmer would not agree to having his land divided and access cut off. So the railways put a tunnel through the hill so he still could access his lands. When the line was being electrified and upgraded in the 1990s they were going to remove the tunnel to make it an open cutting but, largely for historical reasons (so they claimed), they decided to keep the tunnel (although I suspect cost cutting may also have been a factor). The farmer has gone and has been replaced by suburbia on one side of the line and a highway on the other.

The result is the Croom Tunnel, at 40m long the shortest tunnel on the NSW rail system and still in operation.

 

[normhart]

It would depend on what era you are talking about. In the eighteen hundreds hitting a cow could destroy a 4-4-0 locomotive. It happened about 14 miles from where I'm sitting. So yeah, cows got more respect back then.

Cattle gratings AKA cattle guards for tracks are available on the DLS, I think.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rail_cattle_guard.jpg

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1...-ab..0.9.1202...0i13k1j0i7i30k1.0.x4NR1ciOyH8

Edit: Turns out that there both spline cattle guards, suitable for roads or tracks, and building types that the track snaps onto on the DLS.

 

[Pencil42]

In addition, it was not uncommon for the railroad to have to pay restitution to the rancher for the killed cow.

 

[MTH_ELECTRIC_TRAINS]

Of course, this is also why the cow catcher was created. To prevent the loco from being destroyed on impact with the cow. They faded out pretty quickly after 1900 and to me, really became decorative. Yet, a TV show accidentally called a snow plow on a modern diesel loco a cow catcher.

 

[bigboydude]

In short, cows in the U.S. do not cross the tracks normally. Usually it'll be two separate fenced-off pastures and maybe a farm crossing. But that's rare. Very rare. But also, there are a few cases of two pastures split from each other by rail, so they implement a small bridge. The roadbed is raised in this case, and a small concrete bridge is put into place. They also have done it for the highways too. There is and example of this not far from my house (I'm in Oklahoma, so cows are kind of a big deal here ;D), but it's a highway crossing, not by rail. I'm not sure what situations they'll implement this for, but it's a possibility!