when the road is open to crossing traffic, the tracks are protected from cars driving on to them or drunken students falling to them.
This of course is how manually operated crossing gates used to operate - and still do in a few locations on Network Rail (and preserved railways)
That's a good point actually - well I've only seen such examples on preserved railways. Obviously it's not practical to have all 1400-odd road crossings manually operated, so I still think that mechanising that swinging operation to electronically check that the crossing is clear would be a step forward.
This is supposed to be a forum to discuss TV pres, not the railways!
They're a different variety of geeks!
Not on - aside from my Dad's Mondeo, I am dependent on railways (cannot learn to drive owing to epilepsy) and buses to get around. I HAVE to take an interest in them! I wish the word 'geek' would disappear....
I've often wondered - since I was much younger in fact - why level crossing barriers open up rather than sideways. At many level crossings, I think it would be quite practical for a barrier to sweep round rather than rise.
So when a train approaches, the lights come on, traffic stops, and barriers on one side of the tracks swing around and block oncoming traffic and pedestrians, followed shortly thereafter by a corresponding action on the opposite side of the tracks. As the barriers swing around, they could theoretically also be used to check that the crossing area is clear. If for example a car was in the way, the barriers would not be able to close successfully, which could alert the nearest signal and crossing control centre, who would then be able to alert an oncoming train.
If the barriers successfully closed to block the road, the train would pass as normal and without incident. Once the train had safely passed, one side's barriers would re-open, swinging back around, and thus blocking one side of the tracks, shortly thereafter followed by the opposite side's. (There would need to be this short delay between the two sides' barriers operating to ensure that they don't collide in mid-operation, but the delay would not be long enough to allow a vehicle to dodge through without being "swept" by the barriers.) Thus when the road is blocked, the train can pass safely in the knowledge that the crossing has been checked (with the exception of a small area in the very centre of the crossing between the arcs of the barriers movements - this could theoretically be covered by a weight sensor of some sort to ensure that it's clear), and when the road is open to crossing traffic, the tracks are protected from cars driving on to them or drunken students falling to them.
Well, I thought it was a good idea anyway.
Brilliant - and if this has been done on some crossings already, it should be done on them all by now. I couldn't believe "educated" people on the news discussing the dangers of the half barriers and getting rid of them - the half barrier means that if you drive onto the track and the barriers come down, you can still easily drive off the other side. There should be a fence preventing you driving on past the half barrier, and the swing barrier idea suggested here which is apparantly already on some crossings would mean that an automatic signal could alert the driver who would then stop before reaching the crossing - thus stopping anything like this ever happening again.
What I don't understand is, if we have had the technology to tell drivers that a train is approaching the level crossing, why have we never put in place the same technology at the crossing itself, to tell train drivers that a foreign object is on the crossing?
Story has been put to bed now it seems as the debris is cleared. No action will be taken as the TOCs and Network Rail are calling it a road accident that affected the railways. AKA - it's not our problem, we won't spend money on it.
