Signal Maintainer for CSX here. Heres my little diagnostic of this nightmare of a crossing: So first, bell's broken obviously. Easy fix though. remove the old screws, reattach wires (it's just 2) new screws onto the pole. Normally would only take about 10-15min to do with tests. Next, the lights. Broken flasher on the mast facing the camera is easy fix. Open the roundel, pop out the LED insert, replace it with a new one (Usually keep a couple of em' in my truck). Then run a test to make sure it works. Good to go. 20-25min to do with tests. The other lights just look like they were blown by wind or sometimes, just the vibration of trucks can offset them. Easy fix, just readjustment and then tighten the elbow screw that mounts the lights. 10min of work or less, easily. Third, is the gates. A little more tricky. The gears in the gate mechs are calibrated very specifically. More so for gate mechs that share a primary road gate, and a PED gate. Just a light adjustment to the gate mech feedback resistor should make the drop a little slower as well as testing the resistor that slows the drop. As for the PED gates hanging low (mind you I don't have the most extensive experience with them but still some), I personally would re-adjust the gate arm up a notch on its connection bracket that it's bolted to inside the mech. There may be a separate resistor for PED gates that can adjust the gear that they're attached to directly, but if there is, I've never seen it on any of my crossings that have PED gates. All in all, repairing this crossing, (granted the maintainer had all the parts they may need), I can't imagine after repairs and tests (not counting monthly inspection tests) that it would take more than an 60-90min to do. Now before anyone jumps to call out the maintainer, most maintainers on Class 1 railroads have at least 40 crossings to inspect everyday, as well as wayside signals, electric switches, defect detectors, flange greasers, etc. So it may not be top of the list as they may have an inspection for that crossing coming up soon and will handle it then. Of course, there's other factors too like they may not have parts or it's very recent. Plus, in the Eastern part of the U.S., Metra is the top priority service. Before anyone can move or do anything, it has to be cleared with Metra first. My good friend worked as a Train Master for NS in Chicago and said BNSF, UP, CSX, NS, and even Amtrak all have to wait for Metra's approval to do anything. Metra may not be letting a maintainer fix it just yet because they don't wanna bottleneck Metra moves through that area.
Signal Maintainer for CSX here. Heres my little diagnostic of this nightmare of a crossing:
So first, bell's broken obviously. Easy fix though. remove the old screws, reattach wires (it's just 2) new screws onto the pole. Normally would only take about 10-15min to do with tests.
Next, the lights. Broken flasher on the mast facing the camera is easy fix. Open the roundel, pop out the LED insert, replace it with a new one (Usually keep a couple of em' in my truck). Then run a test to make sure it works. Good to go. 20-25min to do with tests. The other lights just look like they were blown by wind or sometimes, just the vibration of trucks can offset them. Easy fix, just readjustment and then tighten the elbow screw that mounts the lights. 10min of work or less, easily.
Third, is the gates. A little more tricky. The gears in the gate mechs are calibrated very specifically. More so for gate mechs that share a primary road gate, and a PED gate. Just a light adjustment to the gate mech feedback resistor should make the drop a little slower as well as testing the resistor that slows the drop. As for the PED gates hanging low (mind you I don't have the most extensive experience with them but still some), I personally would re-adjust the gate arm up a notch on its connection bracket that it's bolted to inside the mech. There may be a separate resistor for PED gates that can adjust the gear that they're attached to directly, but if there is, I've never seen it on any of my crossings that have PED gates.
All in all, repairing this crossing, (granted the maintainer had all the parts they may need), I can't imagine after repairs and tests (not counting monthly inspection tests) that it would take more than an 60-90min to do.
Now before anyone jumps to call out the maintainer, most maintainers on Class 1 railroads have at least 40 crossings to inspect everyday, as well as wayside signals, electric switches, defect detectors, flange greasers, etc. So it may not be top of the list as they may have an inspection for that crossing coming up soon and will handle it then. Of course, there's other factors too like they may not have parts or it's very recent. Plus, in the Eastern part of the U.S., Metra is the top priority service. Before anyone can move or do anything, it has to be cleared with Metra first. My good friend worked as a Train Master for NS in Chicago and said BNSF, UP, CSX, NS, and even Amtrak all have to wait for Metra's approval to do anything. Metra may not be letting a maintainer fix it just yet because they don't wanna bottleneck Metra moves through that area.
----
Poor crossing 😢
Nice Catch
Chicago:A EXTREMELY Crappy place to live,BUT A good railfanning.
What in the world?
What even happened here? Bell's broken, several lights don't work, gates bent out of place, this crossing really needs to be fixed.
It was damaged during the protests that happened in 2020 of the summer
Looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen. So sad to see no care or attention for safety.