Trains are still used to haul coal.
(at least according to this video)
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Saying “Oooh shit! Oooh fuck! Fuckin’ shit!” and such.
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I grew up in Luling, where this happened. There was a route the truck could’ve taken that would have driven straight through that intersection and straight through the tracks. This was entirely avoidable.
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The vertical video really adds to the suspense as you can’t see the train coming until it hits.
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Yes, planfreier Knotenpunkt FTW!
It’s just that you need looooong ramps where it’s really flat. Which might be in the way for other things and streets. And are difficult to retrofit without levelling a couple of blocks.
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Best I can do for you is to give you an 11-foot-8 bridge.
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But that’s the same video that’s in Rob’s blog post?
Not really. It’s still vertical video. I had hopes…
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I don’t think that that’s their primary purpose; they seem more to warn other traffic (oncoming, in the case of the truck in front) that there’s an oversize load, and that the other traffic should be cautious and/or give the right of way.
In this case, it seems like the truck hauling the blade was trying to make a right turn from a cross street just on the other side of the railroad tracks, and trying to figure out how to complete the turn without scraping the blade across the railroad crossing sign/light on the left. It doesn’t seem to be really possible, between the RR XING light and the light poles and whatever else on the right hand side of the picture. (This is a situation where shooting in landscape mode would have given us a much better picture of the obstacles on the right hand side.) Getting on a soapbox for a second, this may be a case of the decline of union trucking and the rise of poorly-paid and inexperienced drivers leading to situations like this, because experienced and well-trained truckers know that they have to avoid situations such as this, and use special maps and navigational aids to help them with that. (See also: the infamous 11’8" bridge underpass.)
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Apparently the trucks carrying the two other blades made it through. For some reason this guy didn’t.
I’m used to seeing a convoy of trucks. There’s often one that has a tall pole for verifying clearance that is a ways ahead (looks for 11-foot-8 bridges and the like). Then just in front of the big rig is the pickup with all the warning lights.
It’s not clear how long the big rig was trying to cross the tracks. Maybe there was plenty of time for a driver who had taken a better line of travel, but this driver may not have been as good.
Part of the problem is scale. The North American rail network is gigantic, so you’re more likely to see over- and underpasses in larger towns, and not always even then.
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