This one was a waste of money

[gedunk]

This should have been left passive. Not easy for motorists on Cherokee road to understand what that cantilever is for!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 6,,0,-0.08

[cabman701]

Here is what I consider a total waste. Sorry for the poor quality:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 4,,1,-2.98

This is a set of gated mast signals that protect a farm field! I know it is hard to see, but there are locked metal gates on either side of the crossing. The only time it gets used is when the farmer needs access to his field... probably only several times a year. Of course, the signals have to be maintained just as any others.

Because of high speed rail going in from Chicago to St. Louis, there are several "crossings" like the one above.

[gedunk]

Here is what I consider a total waste. Sorry for the poor quality:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 4,,1,-2.98

This is a set of gated mast signals that protect a farm field! I know it is hard to see, but there are locked metal gates on either side of the crossing. The only time it gets used is when the farmer needs access to his field... probably only several times a year. Of course, the signals have to be maintained just as any others.

Because of high speed rail going in from Chicago to St. Louis, there are several "crossings" like the one above.

70 years ago if you got run over by a 100+MPH passenger train at an unguarded crossing, that was your tough luck. The laws today are a result of a LOT of fatalities.

[Mafarnz]

= Of course, the signals have to be maintained just as any others.

Because of high speed rail going in from Chicago to St. Louis, there are several "crossings" like the one above.

It's not maintenance, but monthly inspections that cost the RR loads of money. The RR tracks through my town were removed for that reason. The RR wanted to keep them in place but deactivate the signals, the laws wouldn't allow that, and the RR didn't want to spent $20,000 a month inspecting the signals that were only used a few times a year. They almost never needed to do maintenance on them.