(The News Journal posted the following story by Linda Martz on its website on October 23.)
MANSFIELD, Ohio — The Richland County Rail Safety Task Force is midway through photographing more than 100 grade crossings and collecting information on each crossings’ safety.
Shelby Fire Captain Bob Deane, a task force member, gave the recently formed group photos and details on all crossings north of U.S. 30.
He took photos from several vantage points at each crossings. The task force will use those pictures and other information collected to rate the severity of problems — ranging from inadequate warning signs for motorists to branches or high weeds that could block a driver’s view of an oncoming train.
“There’s a lot of horrible crossings out there that I didn’t know about — mostly because of vegetation,” Deane said told the group.
Deane said he also found locations where railroad companies placed “rusty” buildings in the right of way, many of them close enough to the crossing to block the view, he said.
Volunteers from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) have promised to collect data and photograph all grade crossings south of U.S. 30.
Richland County Deputy Engineer James Lichtenwalter said he hopes most of the remaining photos will be within the next 10 days, since foliage is disappearing with the onset of colder weather.
But Deane said he doubts RSVP can document southern Richland County crossings within the next month. “It may take them some time … It’s a lot bigger chore than what I thought it would be.”
Deane gave his opinion on the two worst safety problems in northern county. One, he said, was Ohio 39 near Milliron Industries. Not only are sight lines poor “but you have cars going 60 miles an hour” on a road that curves, he said.
The other is a crossing on Leppo Road in Madison Township, on Mansfield’s northwest side.
Leppo Road has been “a big party road” for kids for years, and the crossing is on a decline in an area that tends to be pitch black at night and is marked only with crossbucks, the fire captain said.
Deane said a neighboring resident told him trains sometimes park across the crossing for as long as four hours. It would be difficult for a motorist to spot train cars not marked with reflective tape, he said.
Lichtenwalter said Angels on Track, a group that will be approached for safety improvement funding, requires local safety task forces to document both public and private crossings. He said the number of trains the four railroads have running through Richland County has changed in the past few years.
Norfolk Southern, which used to run 40 trains per day through Richland County, has decreased the number significantly.
Ashland Railway, which was running just a couple of trains a day, now is running 10 along the Mansfield to Willard stretch of tracks, Lichtenwalter said. The deputy county engineer said the company is bringing construction debris from the eastern states to the county landfill, from CSX along its own short-line rails, then transferring them by truck through a sister company, Sky Transportation, to the landfill, he said.
An Ohio Department of Transportation database lists 101 grade crossings in Richland County. But ODOT’s list definitely doesn’t include every existing crossing, Deane told the group. “There’s a whole lot more crossings to do than what’s there,” he said.