Rich, Your story reminded me of a strange, but true event, that happened when I was still in the UK. I was living near a small town called Blythe Bridge, where the railway line crosses the main street at a very flat angle. This meant that the length of the crossing barriers was long, approximately 35 feet. For some strange reason, when the barriers were down pedestrians would walk half way across the road, wait for the train to pass, watch it arrive in the adjacent station, then continue crossing the road. At certain times of the day two trains would pass, one in each direction, and great excitement would erupted. One day two seniors were stopped and one of them looped the end of his dog's lead around the end of the lowered barrier. The two trains duly passed and in the drama of the moment the poor dog was overlooked for an instant. The gates lifted and with the length of the gate the tip velocity was significant. Local lore has it that the dog, a small rat like terrier, was found three counties away. The serious point is that the only way to avoid the same thing happening again. or to a child, was to fit remote TV cameras and revert to manual control.
Alan ________________________________________________________________________ _ Alan Brewster Compliance Certification Services 1366 Bordeaux Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1005 Tel: 408-752-8166 ext. 122 Fax: 408-752-8168 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.ccsemc.com -----Original Message----- From: Rich Nute [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 2:48 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: Railway Crossing Gate > Will a child hold on to the gate as it opens in order to= > "ride" it and if so what prevents injury. As I child, I was a paper boy. The papers were delivered to our town by train. We picked up our route package at the train station as it was thrown from the baggage car and then we delivered the papers. Normally, we were at the train station before the train arrived. I remember one occasion when the Greyhound bus that crosses the tracks at the station had stopped a foot or so beyond the crossing gate (but well away from the tracks). The gate came down and struck the bus on its roof, and then rested there. Small dent in the metal roof. This was exciting stuff for us paper boys! We found that one paper boy, approximate age 10, pushing down on the counterweights, could easily lift the gate above the roof of the bus. I'm not sure if one of us could ride the gate on its upswing. We'd never do it because we'd have to do it in front of 4 lanes of stopped traffic. I'm not at all sure that the gate would lift a 10-year-old. Anyway, it never crossed our minds. But, I do know that once the gate was up, a 10-year-old boy could not force the gate down by pushing on the counterweights. It was clearly locked in the upright position. Best regards, Rich --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators). --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
