Part of what makes this area of
concern for railroad officials and the
surrounding community is a triple track railroad, lots of rail traffic,
and blind curves where some streets meet the track. One
particular track curve for north/east bound trains does not see the
street until less than 500 feet away. This must cause anxious
moments for motorists and train crews alike. Center Street
is
detailed lower below and Chicago Avenue on the following page.
A landscaping crew member boldly
walked
onto the
tracks and placed an item on a rail within view of the O.L.
train. The bridge is California Highway 60, the Pomona Freeway.
What came next was a BNSF freight
train. Sometimes the Operation Lifesaver train stops and an
officer disembarks to talk to people who do things such as trespass or
put items on the rails.
One BNSF engineer commented that motorists impatient about waiting at
Highgrove, parallel the track on a side street to cross, if they can,
at Main Street ahead of the train. We saw one small pick-up truck
do just that. The following sequence of photographs around
Highgrove are from various moves in both directions.
The following illustrates the
difficulty of judging how fast an object
coming towards you. There is a Metrolink train coming towards the
O.L. train.
