As I said in a separate comment that's government regulation hard at work for you.... Probably cheaper and less time consuming to maintain than to file to take it down..... The CN donated a semaphore to our local museum that hadn't been used in like 30+ years, was only the post left, but it took a while to get permission from the transportation board to take it down.........
That's a cool crossing you found with the mechanical bells and all, hope they don't remove those, I have come across stuff like this and then next thing you know its gone, so enjoy it while it lasts!
That was an interesting find Sam. I wonder how long it has been since the road was in place. Thank you for sharing this interesting railroad crossing with us!
The road was recently closed in the last year or two. The intersection was too dangerous for people trying to get onto the highway. Too many fatal accidents. The highway is classified as limited access beginning north of that former intersection.
I live in Michigan and have heard of a few really bad accidents there. People, not familiar with the area, would keep going straight, since they're not aware of the curve on the main divided highway. If memory serves there have been a few cars that have slammed into trains there.
It's interesting how many secondary roads like that have been blocked to make things better on a primary road. In this case, my guess is that traffic waiting for a train would be backed up onto route 127, causing problems on 127 whenever a train is going by.
There's a crossing similar to this one where the road that links to a highway has been blocked off for many years, but the crossing is still active. But the signals on the example I'm familiar with has been used so recently that it has e-bells
I’m pretty sure those folks wouldn’t have built their house next to the railroad if they didn’t love trains. The crossing signals with real bells is icing on the cake! 😀 Would be sad to lose the signals. 🙁
That is exactly the point where US-127 (former US-27) transitions from a four-lane highway with at-grade intersections and driveways into a limited-access freeway. That was the first at-grade intersection southbound from Grayling and the Mackinac Bridge before this change. A similar intersection that still exists is just west of Jackson where M-60 meets Spring Arbor Road (its former route into the city.)
I am guessing that the owner of the private land around those farms or residences may want alert that a train is coming when crossing the track between yards. Maybe it is an alert for kids playing in those areas to stay away when flashing.
New to (oof) the channel. Awesome video! My guess is exiting 127 to a slow or stopped train could cause stopped traffic on the highway, hence closing the exit.
That's kinda the opposite of what we have here. Abandoned crossing, tracks to the east removed,tracks to the west are in place but MOW flagged and derailed, but the cross bucks are up so the school buses still have to stop. Been that way for years. Old Michigan Central through Dyer,IN. That's just the nature of the railroad, it's not as affecting them so they don't drop a nickel on it. But I know if I lived there I would have myself some lights and cross bucks
Neat! I'm wondering if they still have to blast the horn there? :) Btw there's something similar to this on my local railroad line, only exception is that it's a crossbuck crossing so the crossbucks and the "do not enter" signs remain, the road is now completely covered over with vegetation.
Very interesting catch! Not sure why they would tear up the road but still keep the crossings up. Closest thing I saw to that was a fenced off road in Flowerfield, NY where the crossing still worked.
I wonder if people were trying to drive the wrong way onto the major highway, or even trying to go with the flow of heavier and faster traffic the right direction wasn't working so well?
@@markh.6687 A long train on that crossing could back traffic on to the highway, causing problems. And, traffic trying to enter the highway have a hard time entering the highway, possibly backing up over the crossing.
Removing the road is state DOT responsibility but the signals are the railroad’s responsibility (and property). The DOT can remove the road and notify the railroad that they’re doing so. It’s up the the railroad to decide whether and when they want to spend the money to remove the signals.
Probably all the crossing deactivation processes required by federal and state law/regulation have not been completed, so the RR may not remove crossing protection. Maybe in two years these will be deactivated and removed. It's amazing how much crossing signal equipment remains in place in Kokomo, IN after tracks have been abandoned. There are a number of RUclips videos on abandoned track in Kokomo.
Until such time the railroad decides to remove it. A safe bet, when new rail is laid all of the circuits needed for that crossing will not be needed to be cut in so then the hardware of boxes/sensors/shunts/gates/lights/bells can be removed.
Sadly this railroad crossing was removed in 2022 according to google maps. And it was removed along with the tracks. So there is no railroad there anymore.
Wonder what equipment it has? I know one bell's a 1st Gen Safetran and the lights are 12x20s, but IDK what brand the lights are (WCH?) or the other bell.
Yeah 27 used to run straight up through Michigan to the Mackinaw Bridge before 75 and 127 were built. It also dead ends in Grayling too not that 127 and 75 exist, there are a few dead ends.
So how do the people who live in that one house get out? The road that crossed in front of their house (the one on the south side of the tracks, nearest to the old intersection) had the road removed and no access to the main highway anymore?
Imagine having to live at that house 40 feet from that crossing, and there isn't even a road there. I'm surprised they haven't petitioned to have it removed yet.
I imagine that the crossing was an issue backing up traffic exiting the main road and the neighbors complained forcing the removal of the crossing and the RR left the crossbucks as a pay back. IMHO, LOL.
Probably left there in case they redo the road and open it again. Always cheaper to leave in place then take out. Course, they could at least disable the damn thing!
This is wild but cool at the same time. What an awesome catch. I'm curious to know tho, are the round yellow RxR signs still standing up, there {on both sides of the tracks}?
Ok. Everything everybody said about what could be the reason is possible. At the very least, just disconnect the electrical power and end of story. One less electrical connection to pay for. Also one less unhappy resident in the nearby house.
“The safest grade crossing in America”
Man the nostalgia is real
Holy crap I remember that video
Same
yes
*ikrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*
According to July 2021, the crossing is now gone.
The safest grade crossing in America 2.0!
This crossing definitely reminded me of that video!
@@SamLovesTrains I know right
That’s the truth.
And it's still there.
According to July 2021, the crossing is now gone.
That's crazy but I like it..wonder if I could talk the railroad into installing one in my backyard.
That's a neat idea if you live next to the tracks. You will always know when a train is coming so you can watch.
I’d be cupping my ears so I could record the full activation
I think those signals have been removed now
That must drive the neighbors nearby crazy!
Wire cutters or a wrench to remove the bells would be my solution
!!
@@tobylou8 lol
It probably doesn’t even phase them anymore.
@@IowaSheepdog True. I know folks that have a line 50 yds behind their house. They don't even hear it anymore!
@@tobylou8you would get fined for that and i find the bells relaxing
The railroad owns the signals. It's up to them to take them down.
exactly... and looks like they ain't in a hurry either lol
@@25mfd agree
As I said in a separate comment that's government regulation hard at work for you.... Probably cheaper and less time consuming to maintain than to file to take it down..... The CN donated a semaphore to our local museum that hadn't been used in like 30+ years, was only the post left, but it took a while to get permission from the transportation board to take it down.........
@@ryananthony4840 if "business" was a party and the "government" showed up, there's your "party killer" right there if you get my drift
@@25mfd RIGHT!! lol
For the record - the crossing has been removed when i was last up there within the last 6 months
That's a cool crossing you found with the mechanical bells and all, hope they don't remove those, I have come across stuff like this and then next thing you know its gone, so enjoy it while it lasts!
That was an interesting find Sam. I wonder how long it has been since the road was in place. Thank you for sharing this interesting railroad crossing with us!
Those ladies need to go to a museum!
The road was recently closed in the last year or two. The intersection was too dangerous for people trying to get onto the highway. Too many fatal accidents. The highway is classified as limited access beginning north of that former intersection.
Thank you for the info. I figured it caused accidents.
That makes sense. Understandable, yeah.
Well that explains everything. It looked like the road removal was done recently.
I live in Michigan and have heard of a few really bad accidents there. People, not familiar with the area, would keep going straight, since they're not aware of the curve on the main divided highway. If memory serves there have been a few cars that have slammed into trains there.
That explains why it looks like there used to be a road there...because there was.
It's interesting how many secondary roads like that have been blocked to make things better on a primary road. In this case, my guess is that traffic waiting for a train would be backed up onto route 127, causing problems on 127 whenever a train is going by.
as of right now this is Americas safest railroad crossing ever
There's a crossing similar to this one where the road that links to a highway has been blocked off for many years, but the crossing is still active. But the signals on the example I'm familiar with has been used so recently that it has e-bells
I wonder if it was one of the early crossings to get e-bells
as of august 2023, the signals have been removed. :(
That is cool! I wonder how long it will stay activated
U are fake channel
Nice one! I shot several excursion trains at this crossing with 1225 back in the day. Wild. -Drayton
The bells on the crossing signals are music to me
I wonder if the deer stop. LOL
I’m pretty sure those folks wouldn’t have built their house next to the railroad if they didn’t love trains. The crossing signals with real bells is icing on the cake! 😀 Would be sad to lose the signals. 🙁
It's the original alignment of US 27 (which was realigned before renumbered as US 127).
That is exactly the point where US-127 (former US-27) transitions from a four-lane highway with at-grade intersections and driveways into a limited-access freeway. That was the first at-grade intersection southbound from Grayling and the Mackinac Bridge before this change. A similar intersection that still exists is just west of Jackson where M-60 meets Spring Arbor Road (its former route into the city.)
I am guessing that the owner of the private land around those farms or residences may want alert that a train is coming when crossing the track between yards. Maybe it is an alert for kids playing in those areas to stay away when flashing.
New to (oof) the channel. Awesome video! My guess is exiting 127 to a slow or stopped train could cause stopped traffic on the highway, hence closing the exit.
Thanks! That would make sense.
Not the first time I've seen something like that. No clue where it was, but I've seen ones with the arms that come down and there wasn't a road.
You mean gates
That's kinda the opposite of what we have here. Abandoned crossing, tracks to the east removed,tracks to the west are in place but MOW flagged and derailed, but the cross bucks are up so the school buses still have to stop. Been that way for years. Old Michigan Central through Dyer,IN. That's just the nature of the railroad, it's not as affecting them so they don't drop a nickel on it. But I know if I lived there I would have myself some lights and cross bucks
Neat! I'm wondering if they still have to blast the horn there? :) Btw there's something similar to this on my local railroad line, only exception is that it's a crossbuck crossing so the crossbucks and the "do not enter" signs remain, the road is now completely covered over with vegetation.
Quite unusual there but cool spot!
Just wondering, did the train signal for the crossing?
Yeah, I'd be curious about that too. Good question.
Hey, deer, coyotes and horror movie villains need a place to cross too!
Very interesting catch! Not sure why they would tear up the road but still keep the crossings up. Closest thing I saw to that was a fenced off road in Flowerfield, NY where the crossing still worked.
I wonder if people were trying to drive the wrong way onto the major highway, or even trying to go with the flow of heavier and faster traffic the right direction wasn't working so well?
@@markh.6687 A long train on that crossing could back traffic on to the highway, causing problems. And, traffic trying to enter the highway have a hard time entering the highway, possibly backing up over the crossing.
@@scottbc31h22 I'll buy into both those ideas.
Removing the road is state DOT responsibility but the signals are the railroad’s responsibility (and property). The DOT can remove the road and notify the railroad that they’re doing so. It’s up the the railroad to decide whether and when they want to spend the money to remove the signals.
I'm guessing that the crossing is malfunctioning throughout the video.
That would absolutely drive me nuts all that ding, ding, ding. You can see tracks that someone has been driving through there at some point.
Probably all the crossing deactivation processes required by federal and state law/regulation have not been completed, so the RR may not remove crossing protection. Maybe in two years these will be deactivated and removed. It's amazing how much crossing signal equipment remains in place in Kokomo, IN after tracks have been abandoned. There are a number of RUclips videos on abandoned track in Kokomo.
I wonder how long the crossings going to be there.
Yeah I’m not sure
Until such time the railroad decides to remove it. A safe bet, when new rail is laid all of the circuits needed for that crossing will not be needed to be cut in so then the hardware of boxes/sensors/shunts/gates/lights/bells can be removed.
Sadly this railroad crossing was removed in 2022 according to google maps. And it was removed along with the tracks. So there is no railroad there anymore.
the tracks are still there as of august 2023.
Usually they tear up the tracks and leave the road.
Wonder what equipment it has? I know one bell's a 1st Gen Safetran and the lights are 12x20s, but IDK what brand the lights are (WCH?) or the other bell.
I wouldn’t know. Not familiar with types of bells and lights. All I know is that it’s a mechanical bell.
Yeah 27 used to run straight up through Michigan to the Mackinaw Bridge before 75 and 127 were built. It also dead ends in Grayling too not that 127 and 75 exist, there are a few dead ends.
For farm, sevice vehicles, 4 WD, and cop cars?
This just conjures up the Twilight Zone.
The road to nowhere
Cool find!
Safetran and wrrs? What bells are those?
It’s for testing or a crossing that had the road ripped up
Probably there was a road there years ago, but it was ripped up and the crossing was left there to rot
Sadly I was near there a month or two ago and the signals were gone.
kinda freaky how they flash forever even without a train coming for a while... any reason why?
Probably activated by the photographer by shorting the rails.
So how do the people who live in that one house get out? The road that crossed in front of their house (the one on the south side of the tracks, nearest to the old intersection) had the road removed and no access to the main highway anymore?
I came here for the same reason, according to records that house was sold to MDOT, and is sitting abandoned because MDOT didn't bother to demolish it.
It used A vintage Railroad crossing
Are the engineers required to sound the horn on approach?
why are they going off?
Does the train still have to blow its horn?
I'm wondering, do they still sound the horn when approaching the "ungated" crossing?? 🤔
Do the trains still use their horns when approaching these signals?
I don’t think so.
Imagine having to live at that house 40 feet from that crossing, and there isn't even a road there.
I'm surprised they haven't petitioned to have it removed yet.
That would be a treat to live by that crossing!
Hi great video nice catch. i like trains. Question Did that freight train have a caboose?
Sadly, cabooses are basically just used as standing platforms now :(
So they got rid of the road and even replaced the rails with pavement, but did not get rid of the signals. How ridiculously crazy!
Awesome video! Very neat to see a crossing like that!
There's something you don't see everyday
It's a... ghost crossing!
Wheres the road
That’s different! Very cool!
I imagine that the crossing was an issue backing up traffic exiting the main road and the neighbors complained forcing the removal of the crossing and the RR left the crossbucks as a pay back. IMHO, LOL.
Crossing equipment? Safetran? WABCO?
Curious if they have to flag the crossing if the signals malfunction?
I wouldn’t see why they would. Nothing to flag.
There WAS a road at some point...you can clearly see the remnants!!
Fantastic video, thumbs up and subscribed
Imagine having your own railroad crossing
That is our crazy railroad system at it's best
Now that right there is a great railfanning spot.. If you catch anything
Great find and catch!!
Looks as if this road was closed fairly recently. The RR is always slow about their end of the job
Probably left there in case they redo the road and open it again. Always cheaper to leave in place then take out. Course, they could at least disable the damn thing!
Gotta love mechanical bells. Pretty sure one of them is a Modern Industries
It’s kinda unusual to have a railroad crossing when no road is present.
sadly was removed
Drone video is the best! Hope you also capture tornadoes and spectacular lightning? Why no drone sound?
I bet the people that live in that house love it. Went from a busy road, to a dead end. Hardly anymore traffic on their road.
the road is still there, theres just nothing to help the vehicle cross the tracks. its not paved but you can call it a path
This is wild but cool at the same time. What an awesome catch. I'm curious to know tho, are the round yellow RxR signs still standing up, there {on both sides of the tracks}?
There used to be
Love it....GREAT catch....
I'm surprised the neighbor hasn't stuffed a rag in that bell!!!
Rare footage of me playing with toy train and forgot to put the crossing and only put the signs
Very cool video
That's unusual when they took the street out, they didn't take the electric crossbuck signs out too.
*Sam you like Trains too I do too* *AWESOME* 😂😂😂
That’s a unique level crossing
I think that is like a grade crossing for pedestrians
No train accidents here, that's good.
So this is progress?
I guess this is useful if you're a deer about to cross those tracks.
At least they put a truck turn around on that one end. I'll bet that it's saved a few drivers from disaster by GPS.
They could make it a railfan park
Wow!
That is truly odd!
Have a railroad crossing with trains stop for the train
Ok. Everything everybody said about what could be the reason is possible. At the very least, just disconnect the electrical power and end of story. One less electrical connection to pay for. Also one less unhappy resident in the nearby house.
Nice !!!