Automobile
Versus Railroad Warning Device - Truck Loses
Orange, CA
Nevember 13, 2008
Story
and photographs copyright 2008
by Richard Elgenson
RailNews
Network
On Thursday, November 13, 2008, I
happened upon a usual location on my way to the worker bee day
job. What was unusual was the traffic being stopped just before
the Taft Road highway rail grade crossing with the Metrolink Olive Sub
track. There were plenty of emergency vehicle flashing
lights. There was a railroad warning device on the rails and a nice white
pickup truck past the rails. Orange Police were doing their job
whiile Metrolink personnel were sweeping debris off the track. I
asked OPD what happened, which was just about obvious anyway. It
appears that a lone driver lost control of his brand new white pickup
truck and struck the railroad warning device comprised of crossbuck,
flashing lights, bell and crossing arm. This device was even
protected with old rail welded together in a semicircle.
Everything was taken out of the ground. For those of you
unfamiliar with this area, it is in the City of Orange in central
Orange County California. The streets around here intersect
mostly at right angles. At Taft Road crossing, the railroad
intersects the road at an angle slightly off 90 degrees. Just
past the grade crossing is another perpendicular road intersection with
Glassell Street. Taft Rd. is an east-west street while Glassell
is a north-south street. About 500 hundred feet north of Taft Rd,
Glassell splits in a" Y" crossing the Metrolink track with the other
arm of the Y becoming Orange-Olive Road and parallelling the railroad
north easterly. Needless to say, it is a somewhat slightly
complicated intersection. Use your favorite mapping application
to view the scene. The railroad is part of a giant wye.
This stretch of track connects to the BNSF at Atwood on the north to
funnel trains from the east and to the Surfline on the south in the
City of Orange at CP Walnut. Metrolink Inland Empire - Orange
County trains and BNSF use this track. There is a minor
amount of shippers on the line. The Surfline from the south
connects CP Walnut to Fullerton, west of Atwood.
A number of people on their way to work had seen the aftermath of the
incident. I told my supervisor and he was very interested in
checking out the scene. We arranged to get our vehicle and took
off with out the boss, as he had an important meeting with his
superior. By the time we arrived back at the scene, traffic was
back to normal and the rail crossing was mostly swept clean of
debris. The Metrolink people were disassembling the knocked over
warning equipment. The destroyed truck was gone. Looking up
the track, I could see a headlight, which was either Metrolink 803 or
805. I do know that 803 could not have gotten through at its
normal time, since I can usually hear it and sometimes see it around 6
AM. When I frst happened on the scene, there was too much debris
on the crossing as well as a high rail facing north south of the
crossing. When I returned to take the photographs, I did see a
southbound Metrolink train at about 6:35 AM. It was definitely on
a slow order, but was still moving at a fast speed.
The work camera is an old Cannon A-40 and does not get good photos on
the fly. However, you can see the warning equipment has been
moved off the street. The gate is parallel to the concrete curb
and the bell is sitting on the dirt. The flashers got
mangled. The rails are just visible at the top of the
picture. All 5 photographs were taken around 6:30 AM.
The Metrolink maintainers were disassembling the device just after
sunrise.
The next view shows the track as I am looking south-southwest.
This location is about 1/2 mile north of where I photographed the
Circus train in August.
There is a red flag draped over the crossbuck. My guess is the
maintainers used the flag to stop eastbound vehicular traffic for
trains.
At least the incident did not take out the electrical box.
On my way home after 4:30 PM, they were still working on the
crossing. The gate was still not installed yet, though the post
had been erected. I did see Metrolink 804 traverse the crossing
at normal speed on my way home. All in all, it was a fine day in
the neighborhood since I had to work a dredging job in Newport Beach on
a beautiful fall day in Southern California.