MADISON, Wisc. — Locomotive Engineer Stefan Romanski’s and conductor Joe Dufeck’s train rumbled across Stoughton Road Thursday, 1,500 massive tons of steel in 17 open gondola cars, when a car darted in front of the crossing’s flashing lights, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
It zipped past the oncoming train and was safely gone before the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad engineer could even try to blast the powerful horn on his 1,200-horsepower switcher locomotive. “With this whistle ban in Madison, I think it increases your stress level a lot more,” Romanski said.
Since Oct. 1, a Madison ordinance has banned train whistles at more than 70 city railroad crossings equipped with flashing lights or gates, but engineers may blow in emergencies.
The Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., owned by Bill Gardner, argues that whistles are necessary for the safety of the public and railroad employees. Gardner honored the ban until two car-train collisions last fall, one of which injured a 9-year-old girl. He then told engineers to use their horns.
Many East Siders, unable to sleep at night, complained. On Wednesday, the city sued the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad in Municipal Court, seeking fines of up to $500 for each of 20 instances when horns allegedly were used illegally.
But Gardner already had rescinded his order with a memo Tuesday saying engineers should abide by the law. “We don’t like the whistle ban,” said Mike McConville, the railroad’s transportation superintendent, “no doubt about that. But we do understand we have to do our best to comply with it.”
The thing is, McConville said, “When you’re coming up on a crossing, you can’t steer. You can stop, but it takes an awful long time. The only thing you can do is yank on that horn. Motorists and pedestrians are not as responsible around railroads as they should be.”
Men like Romanski, 43, and DuFeck, 27, don’t want serious injury or death on their consciences. They short-haul lumber, scrap metal, sand, gravel and hazardous materials from the East Side to the West Side and back, working 12-hour shifts that begin at 6 a.m. It’s not glamorous railroading, like the Empire Builder’s run from Chicago across the Great Plains to Seattle, but they say it’s honest work that takes three semitrucks off the road for every railroad car.
On Thursday at 8 a.m., the two men headed out of the Monona Yards at Fordem Avenue and East Johnson Street with three diesel locomotives and two carloads of lumber. They went west to the “Long John,” a siding at Highland Avenue near University Hospital, dropped off the lumber and picked up six gondolas (shallow, open freight cars) of coal. They left the coal at a “mini yard” at Dayton and Mills Street, then returned to the Monona Yards.
Diesels burbling throatily, they traversed 42 crossings during that time, in which Romanski (legally) blew his whistle twice at streets unprotected by lights or gates. Two bicyclists, six cars and one pedestrian defied the warning lights to cross in front of the train. One semitruck driver on East Washington Avenue started to cross the tracks, but the crossing gate came down on his cab.
Dufeck was the engineer at 4:20 a.m. Dec. 4 when James Kinnear’s car crashed into a locomotive at Ingersoll Street. Kinnear escaped injury, but was charged with drunken driving.
“It was at a crossbuck crossing (one not protected by lights), so I was blowing the whistle,” Dufeck said. “I saw a car coming at high speed. He stopped. I was halfway through the crossing, blowing the whistle and ringing the bell, and I heard something hit the side of the engine. It was a car coming from the other side.”
He stopped the train and climbed down to check Kinnear. “I was just thankful he was OK,” Dufeck said.
Dufeck and Romanski said although whistles don’t guarantee safety, they want the option of blowing them. “I wouldn’t mind a whistle ban in Madison, but the crossings just aren’t ready for it,” Romanski said. “If someone got killed, I’d feel really bad.”
Only four crossings in the city are equipped with gates, according to Gardner. Railroad men believe the city should equip all of its approximately 100 railroad crossings with gates before telling engineers to lay off the whistles. Such protection would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, something the city can ill afford.
There were 33 car-train collisions in Madison from 1991 through 2001, an average of 3 per year. One person died in 2000, state officials said.
At 9:20 a.m. in the Monona yards, Romanski and Dufeck left behind their third diesel and hooked on to eight empty gondola cars before heading through the East Side to Samuels Recycling Co., 4400 Sycamore Ave., where they picked up 10 gondolas of scrap metal and dropped off the empties. Heading back west, they admired four huskies basking in a sunny, backyard kennel and spotted a muskrat in a trackside creek.
“The yard master says he’ll buy us lunch,” Romanski announced.