A "near miss"* at a crossing in Oklahoma!!

I was waiting at a RR crossing in Lawton, Oklahoma last night. It was about 9:45 PM.

I was just trying to get back home after getting some groceries. The gates on 38th Street were down, the red lights were flashing and the bells went ding-dong. For five minutes there was no hide nor hair of any train. I thought the gates were haywire. Traffic was backing up. I had explosive diahrrea. I had to get home fast. So, I Motorola'ed 911 to report this. The dame on the telephone said "somebody" would be out to fix this. Well, about 15 minutes later, nobody came out to fix anything. Finally, I heard a train whistle in the distance. Every minte or so the whistle sounded louder. Then finally, a freight train about a half mile long creeped past doing about 15 mph. I finally got home and onto the john. That was a narrow escape. At the RR crossing, there was a big concrete divider in the middle of the street where I could not make a yoo-ee in my little Toyota compact coz it was so low to the ground. Looking in my mirror, somebody in a 4x4 truck drove right over this divider to flip around. Luckily for him there was no center guard rail. Somebody in an econobox tried it but his his front spolier hit the curb summarily.

The moral of the story is, don't separate yourself from home by a RR track right after having eaten a big taco dinner with hot sauce and beans UNLESS you have a curb-crawler of a vehicle.

*Yes, it was a "near miss" for my sweat pants, boxer briefs and my automobile's driver seat bottom!

JonMyrlennBailey said:

*Yes, it was a "near miss" for my sweat pants, boxer briefs and my automobile's driver seat bottom!

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I could have gone all day without reading this......

I think I get gist of this near explosive encounter at messed up Crossing.........What a predicament of potential unparalleled proportions....!

That near miss could ended up quite a mess..........:hehe:

davesnow said:

I could have gone all day without reading this......

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Now a serious RR technology question: why might it take 20 whole minutes for a RR crossing to remain active before the train finally decides to pass?

JonMyrlennBailey said:

Now a serious RR technology question: why might it take 20 whole minutes for a RR crossing to remain active before the train finally decides to pass?

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The train had activated the circuit and was in motion. The engineer may have had a slow order or maybe a yellow signal to contend with up ahead. In either case, he's going to drive at less than the normal speed.

The concrete median was probably put there to prevent idiots from driving around the gates which seems to be a common thing these days.

I'm glad you made a clean getaway and made it home safely.

JCitron said:

The train had activated the circuit and was in motion. The engineer may have had a slow order or maybe a yellow signal to contend with up ahead. In either case, he's going to drive at less than the normal speed.

The concrete median was probably put there to prevent idiots from driving around the gates which seems to be a common thing these days.

I'm glad you made a clean getaway and made it home safely.

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John:

At this particular crossing, there were a bunch of trees and bushes on either side so it was hard to see up the track more than 100 feet on either side. When I heard the first whistle, it sounded faint like the oncoming train may have been a mile or more up the track. It's so odd that the crossing would be activated that far away by an approaching train way off in the distance. This is within the city limits of this Army town so I think the train speed limit might not be more than 25 MPH in this zone. Trains normally creep about 15 MPH along this track though. I most often hear them whistling in the morning rolling through town somewhere around 7 or 8 o'clock. I'm not sure what railroad this is in town but I have seen UP locomotives along a line about 5 miles north of Lawton running parallel with I-44. That train that stopped me last night had 4 older-style hood-unit (GP-38?) locomotives in front and about a half mile of mixed freight cars, mostly boxcars. The engines had liveries that were unfamiliar to me. The engines may have been painted in navy blue and white. I'm not much of a train watcher in Lawton.

After posting this, I just did a Google search of the railroad running through Lawton, Oklahoma. It appears to be the Stillwater Central with SD-40 locos that are a navy blue, or black?, and yellow. They have that same turbo engine sound I hear in Trainz SD-40's.

https://www.watco.com/service/rail/stillwater-central-railroad-slwc/

Here are some GP-38's (with these odd WAMX markings above the engine numbers) in Oklahoma City:

WAMX stands for Webb Asset Management. They're a leasing company that leases locomotives and rolling stock to other companies. And they're black, not navy blue. Here's Railroad Picture Archives.NET's section on WAMX: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Railroad.aspx?id=WAMX

Going back and forth to work I had to go through a crossing. On one side of the street was a yard, trains would come down the other side so gates went down. The train would then stop, waiting for permission to enter the yard. you could either wait on the train or u-turn and take a 10min or so detour. Never accepted as a excuse for being late.

Rob

In Kettle Falls, Washington during the heydey there were many times they would switch blocking both entrances into and out of town off the highway. If you had to get in or out it was a bout a five mile detour around three sides of town to where there was a train overpass.