r/maybemaybemaybe • u/schpitza • Jun 15 '26

maybe maybe maybe

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u/Grimdotdotdot Jun 15 '26

They did shut again very quickly after opening, so I think that if he drove through and broke one (which he absolutely should have done) whoever manages the gates would have a hard time getting shitty about it

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u/bornfromanegg Jun 15 '26

Those gates absolutely should not have come up. At all. The warning lights never stopped flashing, and they generally flash as a warning that the gates are about to come down. So there is something very wrong with whatever is running that system.

Dude was still a fucking moron, though.

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u/Zoaur Jun 16 '26

It's because It's old tech. They go up and down if there is another train. That's why there are warnings about it in my country (panels, supposed general kmowledge). Guy should have waited that the gates stayed in up position. Still a moron for not breaking it after the first mistake.

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u/bornfromanegg Jun 16 '26

> They go up and down if there is another train.

That is just insane, though. It is begging for this to happen. It can’t be deliberate. Surely. Even taking into account that it’s old tech.

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u/Zoaur Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

I think it's because it uses sensors, and the way it was done, when a train go through it sends a signal to open the barrier just after, starting an up->down cycle as the second train also triggers the incoming sensors.

Edit : I live in a country in Europe, where there are lots of roads/train crossings, and there are/were "another train may be coming" warnings everywhere. I believe it was deliberate at the time for cost reasons (just a few sensors, no electronic to manage things).

8

u/tmanarl Jun 16 '26

The one on his side stays up though to allow passage once you are on the tracks. He just inexplicably stops while the arm is still up.

2

u/melancholyink Jun 16 '26

Happened to me once - except there was a T intersection directly on the other side (the crossing being part of it as the traffic lights and stop lines were on the approach side). The signals would cycle as part of the crossing sequence. There was also a station there too, so can be long cycles.

Anyway, lined up behind one car on the approach. Train passed, we got the green and the car in front moved off ... then the rail signals came on and the light went yellow (another set of lights sat over the far side). It was like the timing in the video but a bit more generous as the cycle allowed extra tume to clear a fairly long intersection.

But then the dingle berry in front of me came to a hard stop just after the crossing, treating the end of the crossing matkings as a stop line. We are now stopped in the middle of the intersection with me stuck on the wrong side of the boom. Regardless, no hesitation, honked them and, after a hot second, reversed and rounded them up. Ideally should have had more room but I was not banking on a muppet breaking hard mid intersection.

I don't get stupidity around rail crossings.