|
What's the best technique for driving over level crossings, to minimise wear/damage to the mechanical parts of your car? Fast, slow, clutch engaged , clutch disengaged, in gear, in neutral etc.?
|
|
To minimise the risk of terminal damage I always ensure that there is always sufficient escape space (ie no vehicle immediately in front), and that the vehicle has sufficient inertia to get across the tracks in the event of most examples of mechanical failure. OK - I accept that complete suspension collapse may defeat my efforts but the principles are applied at the expense of passenger comfort or minimisation of long term wear and tear!
|
>> What's the best technique for driving over level crossings, to minimise wear/damage to the mechanical
>> parts of your car?
Wait for the barriers to go up :)
I wouldn't have thought that the gaps/bumps in the various bits of a level crossing were big enough to cause significant wear/damage?
|
Blimey L'escargot you should live in the Fens... most of the B-roads are like one long level crossing.
If the gates are up, visibility down the line is good and there is no other traffic to consider I mostly go just a few mph under the speed for the road.
Funnily enough the other day I was going a bit hard across one crossing and the traction control light flicked on.... not sure why.
|
It either still had the old wooden part between the rails or more likely, a lorry had gone over with a full deisel tank and a little had spilled out through an unsecured cap.
I usually check both ways up and down the rail line and go like hell, I'm afraid.
Lesser of two evils:)
Pat
|
They are like cattle grids - the faster the better.
At speed there is just a mild fluttering noise and minimal vibration. Slowly, it feels like driving over a lot of loose scaffolding poles.
|
each one has its own technique, each is unique. Raised? sunken? two or single line working?
wooden/concrete/fixed/loose boards, narrow/wide road?
|
|
I treat them as a give way junction with trains having priority, open gates mean it is safe to cross if no train approaching in my book. A bit like a green traffic light only means go if it is safe to move. If you had seen our potholes and speed bumps you would hardly notice the slightly uneven surface.
|
>
>> Funnily enough the other day I was going a bit hard across one crossing and
>> the traction control light flicked on.... not sure why.
>>
Probably one wheel momentarily lost grip as it went across the steel rail.
I do wonder if the suspension on my old bangers wears out quicker due to the 12 or more cattle grids taken at 30 mph+ every day...
|
>> Funnily enough the other day I was going a bit hard across one crossing and
>> the traction control light flicked on.... not sure why.
No traction when wheel off the ground.
|
>> I wouldn't have thought that the gaps/bumps in the various bits of a level crossing
>> were big enough to cause significant wear/damage?
You should try some of the ones in Southport, Focus! There's one in particular that can only be crossed at less than 15mph if you don't want to cause significant damage to your lower portions. The powers that be regularly close the crossing to automotive traffic in an attempt to fix the but the crossing needs completely renewing to make it any better.
If Stuartli is looking in, he'll probably know the one that I'm referring to but for those that don't know Southport, here's the link to good old Google Streetview:
tinyurl.com/2vps3tz
The crossing is far worse to drive over than it looks, believe me. When I drove buses in Southport I had to slow to around 5mph to cross it so that my passengers didn't get shaken off their seats - and that is not an exaggeration.
|
|
IMO the crossing itself looks ok, it's the road around it that looks like it could do with resurfacing, especially the approaches.
|
>> >> I wouldn't have thought that the gaps/bumps in the various bits of a level
>> crossing
>> >> were big enough to cause significant wear/damage?
>>
>> You should try some of the ones in Southport, Focus!
Fair enough - I'm usually in the train looking out rather than vice versa, and from that side they seem pretty smooth :)
Looks like that line goes right through a residential area, with quite a few crossings - safe?
|
There's a level crossing on a busy road near here which is sometimes affected by traffic queuing at nearby lights.
There's a big sign beside it that says 'only stop here if you can get away quickly'!
|
I live in the north of the town so don't often go over the Liverpool railway line level crossings apart from Duke Street, but all are much worse to drive over than they appear from a casual glance.
Makes you wonder why they call them level crossings..:-)
|
>> I wouldn't have thought that the gaps/bumps in the various bits of a level crossing
>> were big enough to cause significant wear/damage?
I was thinking from the aspect of shocks to the driveline system. I read somewhere yonks ago that the best way was to stay at the same speed but to go across in neutral. But that may have just been that one person's opinion.
|
Slowly, in the appropriate gear.
That said, most are flat enough not to worry about and can be zoomed over.
|
>> That said, most are flat enough not to worry about and can be zoomed over.
I find that having to zig zag between the barriers makes it impossible to simply zoom over ;o)
|
>> I find that having to zig zag between the barriers makes it impossible to simply
>> zoom over
Buy a bigger vehicle, silly, then you don't need to stop!
You can always turn right or left after the first barrier, anyway - the routes are a bit bumpy, but fairly direct.
|
There are two within 400 yards of each other near me, one on an A-road and the other on a minor road. I use the minor one more frequently and the technique there is to straddle the white lines in the centre of the road, as the fill-in sections of (I think) metal plate have sunk at either side making for a heck of a bumpy crossing indeed.
I once got rear-ended just before a level crossing and came to a dazed halt on it for a few seconds, before regaining the presence of mind to shift my van off it sharpish. No trains were coming, it was out in the fens and I had been the middle vehicle of three, all spread out and all travelling at around 60mph - the driver in front braked very hard and very late from 60mph to 20mph, I did likewise, the guy behind me was looking up the line for trains at that moment... CRUNCH!
|
>> Buy a bigger vehicle, silly, then you don't need to stop!
>>
Like a train?! ;-)
|
You don't get much bigger than this....but it still doesn't help.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsBbBkRh8k0&feature=related
The lady driver and her dog were ok.
A lot of T Cut was needed afterwards.
Ted
|
Ruddy awful positioning of the traffic lights... I trust the lorry driver sued the highways authority for that as the traffic lights should never had been allowed to go to green the same time as the crossing lights were on red!
The front end of the railway loco is worse than it looks, btw, it will just get new front bolted on! Lesson of the day... 500 tons of train will destroy any normal road vehicle!
|
I read this thread yesterday, and later was in slow traffic passing a level crossing.
The driver behind me in the queue stopped on the crossing and happily waited a few minutes for the traffic to move. He didn't seem worried by any thoughts that a train might come.
|
|
Obviously needs to refresh himself on the highway code!
|
watching that clip, I saw this was availble,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCyiKIOTZHQ&feature=fvw
what a shocking piece of driving, slaming on the anchors just as the back was starting to go slightly was the creme dal la dish..
|
|
The crash barrier didn't do its job there did it !
|
>> The crash barrier didn't do its job there did it !
Looks like it had already been damaged in the exact same place, which probably explains why it didn't stop the car.
Perhaps they were hoping that those little orange cones would do the job, until they got around to fixing it.
|
|
Considering at least two cars have hit exaclty the same section of barrier, I think I'd have driven a little beyond the damaged barrier before stopping!
|
Driving over level crossings - sherlock47
