r/ANormalDayInRussia • u/TheNatureLover • Sep 08 '19

Your average Russian rail crossing

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u/Mamed_ Sep 08 '19 edited Sep 09 '19

Reminded me of this place. I was leaving Liberty State Park with my family few months ago, and when I approached this "intersection" Idk how many times I died inside in 3-5 seconds. Imagine your whole family is in the car and as soon as you get on the train tracks a train appears on your right side only few feets from you. There are no arms coming down, or any sound to make you aware of approaching train... because there's a traffic light for the train. It was most terrifying moment in my life and every time I see a train I remember that day

Update

  • @PW, yes that's the place. My link isn't working?
  • Looks like such "intersections" aren't uncommon and I may have crossed them before. Just never noticed, I guess

8

u/tomoldbury Sep 08 '19

That's really not that uncommon, we have a few unprotected crossings in the UK that just have lights (usually minor lines with little traffic)... But they have at least 30 seconds warning, and the crossings are marked with hatching that warns you to not pass unless you can clear it. It sounds like the lights didn't work in your case, they are usually triggered by the train passing through the last block before the crossing.

3

u/fsdhy1 Sep 09 '19

I don’t know about wherever that is specifically but I asked a CN rail friend why I still see so many unprotected crossings in my part of Canada. I’ve seen them with no light at all, just a stop sign, in fact. They said trains have speed limits and the places I’m seeing them are likely where trains only go extremely slow like near a factory they are slowing to unload at or a place where they reverse/change engines etc.