Re: signals?

This is in response to all the other comments about how to solve C&TS's crossing situation. Here at SVRy as Ron Brinton related, we had an incident a few years ago where a lady said she couldn't see the tracks, and didn't think we were a real railroad, and knocked our speeder and 2 volunteers onto the Oregon Hwy 7 pavement. This and other near incidents prompted us to install a crossing gate. We hired a retired UP (I think) guy to oversee the installation.
The gate works and the cab crew also eyes the crossing closely just to make certain no one tries to go around. So far so good. I have seen an elderly couple in an older Suburban with large vacation trailor barely stop at the gates, and almost ditched it, and a VW attempt to go around until he finally saw us (with bell on and whistle sounding for the crossing). Then the problem happened this summer.
The gate began to go up and down unceasingly. Someone finally called a local Sheriff who knew to call one of our people who then called our Signals and Communications guy. He went out and disabled it until a permanent fix could be made. This happened during the week (we only run on weekends thus far). He later found a bad rail jumper and fixed the problem. Now enter the FRA (possibly).
I attended a short line FRA conference in Portland in September. One thing really stood out at this conference. FRA inspects rails, cars, lokies etc., but they really concern themselves about crossing gates. They look at everything you can imagine including the colorimetry and brightness of the warning lights, timing for the train to the gate, and most of all reliability. Schematics have to be kept up-to-date and all modifications recorded. Batteries have to be checked and on and on. Problems must be resolved within minutes, not hours. Their biggest concern is a faulty gate will lead the public to distrust crossing gates and begin to go around them.
I obtained a 2 page list of fines for infractions. Beginning at $2k and up to I think $15k for a real serious infraction. The FRA inspectors and Northwest area short line technicians are a close group and communicate well, but I think it is well understood that theirs is a serious endevour. So, reading all the comments on this on ngdiscussion plus what I learned at FRA has caused us at SVRy to rethink the whole situation. Even to the thought of going back to a flagged crossing. BTW, if a crossing gate fails, the crew or someone MUST flag the crossing.
What if someone gets injured or is killed because of a faulty gate? Who is liable? The railroad? The Engineer? The Signal Maintenance Technician? So now we will form a committee to look closely into all this and include an outside consultant.
Bottom line: Look real close at establishing a crossing gate. You may want to just flag the crossing.
dan, Trainmaster, SVRy