I came across a broken crossing signal once upon a time. Someone had apparently run into it and then simply laid the broken pieces against the remaining structure. At a glance it appeared to be fine but while I was spotting the area a train came through and half the structure suddenly fell off as the device attempted to spring into motion. I called the phone number on the reporting placard but instead of reaching the railroad I was connected to a Texas Highway Patrol clerk. Even with a clear description including the location code and cross streets they still had no idea what I was talking about. Made me wonder what use these people would be if a commercial truck or other serious blockage was stuck on the tracks. Seems like there could be a substantial delay while they tried to figure out what was being called in, where the problem was, what needed to be done, and who to tell about it.Story #1 A few weeks ago the at grade crossing near the beef plant in Liberal KS, one of the arms got damage in a wind storm. I call it in, and found out they had already been notified. The maintainer was enroute, but several trains got there before the maintainer. While the trains did not stop and flag, all were going at a restricted speed and blowing the horn hard as they approached that crossing. Other than one of the arm broken off the light were flashing as normal.
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