Orangeville-Brampton Railway (OBRY)

[jys]

[...]
The driver of a silver Volkswagen is lucky to have escaped a collision with a train on the Orangeville-Brampton Railway without injury.
[...]

From looking at the impact, he's damn lucky that train wasn't doing the speed it's legally mandated to...to fully make that point, we do need more info...

Edit to Add: Just trying to get a better sense of what happened here, and logic is gapping as to what the driver's awareness (or lack of) was:
He was headed south towards the camera, and it appears from the clump of trees shown in the news pic, the train was headed north-west:

Anyone have any ideas how one could possibly not see what was approaching?

Distracted driving at the least? I love cycling those roads, but man...drivers will be the death of me...

It said in the news article that the car was driving southbound, so no confusion there. But I disagree with you that the the is heading north west. If you look at the satellite image below, you would see that the clump of trees is directly east of the intersection, which means that the train is heading south(in general) towards Brampton. This would also make it harder for the driver to see the train as he would have to turn more than 90 degrees to the right in order to see it.

 

[steveintoronto]

It said in the news article that the car was driving southbound, so no confusion there. But I disagree with you that the the is heading north west. If you look at the satelite image below, you would see that the clump of trees is directly east of the intersection, which means that the train is heading south towards Brampton. This would also make it harder for the driver to see the train as he would have to turn more than 90 degrees to the right.

Take another look...that clump of trees? The train took half the distance to that clump on the train's left from the crossing. The vehicle was pushed that distance. Must have been a heavy load on the train...

There are no other clumps on the left of the train possible, I studied it closely, at first assuming the train was also headed south.

Get back to me here if you still disagree after taking another look...Even if your assertion is correct, how can you not see a train approaching at 30 degrees @ (10 mph?) to the right of your forward vision, let alone turning slightly to look?

Edit to Add: This will be rehashed, doubtless: (but note the speed limit!)

No plans to add warning gates at Orangeville Brampton Railway crossing where fatal train crash occurred
Company says crossing meets required regulations
News Apr 19, 2016 by Louie Rosella Brampton Guardian

Carol Thompson, 56, was killed and her father Egbert Thompson was seriously injured after the car they were in collided with a train at a crossing on Sandalwood Parkway West. The rail crossing is controlled by railway crossing lights, but there are no gates.

Carol Thompson, 56, was killed and her father Egbert Thompson was seriously injured after the car they were in collided with a train at a crossing on Sandalwood Parkway West. The rail crossing is controlled by railway crossing lights, but there are no gates.

Carol Thompson, 56, was killed and her father Egbert Thompson was seriously injured after the car they were in collided with a train at a crossing on Sandalwood Parkway West. The rail crossing is controlled by railway crossing lights, but there are no gates.

Despite calls from family members of a Brampton woman killed by a train earlier this month, the company that operates the railway crossing said there are no immediate plans to add automatic warning gates.

Federal Ministry of Transportation spokesperson Clay Cervoni told The Guardian the Orangeville Brampton Railway falls under provincial jurisdiction and the decision on whether to add warning gates as a safety precaution falls on the road authority and the railway owner.

But Julie Pomehichuk, marketing and communications manager with Cando Rail Services, the firm that operates the Orangeville Brampton Railway which the fatal crash occurred on back on April 8 that killed Carol Thompson, 56, and badly injured her elderly father, said the crossing on Sandalwood Parkway West, near Van Kirk Drive, is in compliance with Transport Canada’s Grade Crossings Regulations.

“This was a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the family. Transport Canada’s Grade Crossings Regulations contain standards for the type of protection required at a crossing related to vehicle traffic and train traffic numbers. The inclusion of gates or absence of gates in their design standards should be addressed with Transport Canada. The crossing protection at this location was within the standards and was working as intended,” she said, later adding “crossing protection is laid out by the Transport Canada standards, this crossing was in compliance and Cando will continue to comply with the standards in the future if they change.”

Provincial Ministry of Transportation spokesperson Bob Nichols said Queen’s Park continues to work with Transport Canada, municipalities and rail operators to improve safety at railway crossings across the province and that new federal Grade Crossing Regulations came into force in November 2014.

“Rail operators and the ministry are currently collecting data and sharing information, in accordance with the Grade Crossing Regulations,” he said. “After reviewing this information an improvement program will be developed, to ensure compliance by November 2021.”
[...]
Thompson’s car was pushed between 50 and 100 metres from the crossing south along the tracks. The elder Thompson had to be cut free from the wreckage by Brampton firefighters and was airlifted to hospital.

The train was a short freight train consisting of an engine and two cars. It continued approximately 100 metres past the wreckage before coming to a stop.
[...]
The Orangeville Brampton Railway (OBRY) line is 55 kilometres long and runs between Orangeville and Streetsville. Two days a week – Tuesday and Friday – it services two industries in the Van Kirk industrial area of Brampton, and other industries in Orangeville. On weekends, a seasonal public excursion train, the Credit Valley Explorer, runs between Orangeville and Snelgrove.

The tracks are decades old, and the speed limit along the line is reportedly 10 mph (16 km/h), according to local train enthusiasts. [...]

https://www.bramptonguardian.com/ne...ay-crossing-where-fatal-train-crash-occurred/

 

[jys]

Take another look...that clump of trees? The train took half the distance to that clump on the train's left from the crossing. The vehicle was pushed that distance. Must have been a heavy load on the train...

There are no other clumps on the left of the train possible, I studied it closely, at first assuming the train was also headed south.

Get back to me here if you still disagree after taking another look...Even if your assertion is correct, how can you not see a train approaching at 30 degrees @ (10 mph?) to the right of your forward vision, let alone turning slightly to look?

Edit to Add: This will be rehashed, doubtless: (but note the speed limit!)

https://www.bramptonguardian.com/ne...ay-crossing-where-fatal-train-crash-occurred/

You're probably right. I assumed that the train hit the car at low speed and therefore did not push it very far.

 

[steveintoronto]

Your probably right. I assumed that the train hit the car at low speed and therefore did not push it very far.

What compounds figuring it out (and I'm still not fully convinced my scenario is correct) is that his car must have been flipped around somehow. Can you imagine? The story with the fatality above was (ostensibly) the same speed of impact!

That guy had best buy a lottery ticket while his luck is still good...

It's unfortunate, as this looks bad for OBR, when drivers are unable or willing to just follow the requirements of safe driving. Shid happens, doubtless, but there's no defence against idiocy. I may have to retract that if some detail comes out like a bee was stinging him or something of the like, but I suspect radio or headphones blasting, or an i Phone, distracted driving of some sort....we'll see. One second later, the impact might have been into the side of the loco....and into/under the wheels. He's lucky there was a snow plow on the front of the loco.

 

[dowlingm]

It's time that the onus to prevent these incidents fell squarely on those responsible - road owners and road users. If the municipality won't pay to grade separate crossings, chicanes and rumble strips should be mandated to force drivers to a low speed when approaching them.

 

[steveintoronto]

chicanes and rumble strip

Excellent idea! It's still not fool proof, but if that doesn't get them to slow enough to see the obvious, and alert them, nothing short of barriers will. And even barriers aren't fool proof.

 

[dowlingm]

Excellent idea! It's still not fool proof, but if that doesn't get them to slow enough to see the obvious, and alert them, nothing short of barriers will. And even barriers aren't fool proof.

but people try to beat the barriers by increasing speed. Chicanes make that harder.

 

[steveintoronto]

but people try to beat the barriers by increasing speed. Chicanes make that harder.

Absolutely true, and what I really like is the very low cost and totally redundant functionality of it. Some idiot will find some way around it, doubtless, but the caveat "You were clearly warned" then applies if that idiot is whacked.

I was briefly looking for examples of them used for rail crossings, done for pedestrians, couldn't find any for vehicles, but I suspect they exist, it's such an obvious idea save for trucks. But someone has probably figured out a way to handle that.

But here's the thing! Will the locals be wanting to be 'slowed down unnecessarily' by this? This discussion is going to have to happen, as the munis and Ont can't put full automatic warnings at every crossing. A good friend's brother was killed in Grafton driving back from a beachfront cottage across the CN tracks two decades back. He was a very bright, intelligent individual. It was same time of day as this accident. Coffee can only do so much in perking awareness sometimes...

 

[M636RF]

Does anyone know how often OBRY runs? A few times a week? I think the more probable cause of crossing accidents like this is force of habit. If drivers rarely encounter trains at a particular crossing, their more likely to take the already inadequate warning signs less seriously each time they cross (and thats in addition to potential visual obstructions).

 

[steveintoronto]

Does anyone know how often OBRY runs? A few times a week? I think the more probable cause of crossing accidents like this is force of habit. If drivers rarely encounter trains at a particular crossing, their more likely to take the already inadequate warning signs less seriously each time they cross (and thats in addition to potential visual obstructions).

Freight trains, operated by Cando Contracting Limited[1] for OBRY, make weekday round trips (on Tuesdays and Fridays) between Orangeville and Mississauga.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangeville_Brampton_Railway

Scenic tours:
https://www.creditvalleyexplorer.com/reservations/searchTours.do
(on one of Wed, Sat, Mon, Thurs) (when Cando not running)

But as the old phrase said: "Train time is anytime". The onus is on drivers to look. (Listening might be difficult due to headphones, radio blaring, etc)

 

[smallspy]

Does anyone know how often OBRY runs? A few times a week? I think the more probable cause of crossing accidents like this is force of habit. If drivers rarely encounter trains at a particular crossing, their more likely to take the already inadequate warning signs less seriously each time they cross (and thats in addition to potential visual obstructions).

Freight runs are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays, although they will also run as required any other day.

Passenger trains are scheduled on the other days (and again can be run as required), but they seldom get further south of the siding north of Mayfield.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[steveintoronto]

I was delighted today to be doing a regular medium distance cycle trip to prepare for 'real ones' soon, I hope. Very late this year with the weather only now approaching being predictably sunny, so making great time along the Caledon Trailway (can't say enough good things about it for a close to Toronto half-day get-away, GO getting you close to beginning and end)...and was pulling into Inglewood for a carton of chocolate milk at the general store (my engine is optimized to run on chocolate milk, adjusted the timing, compression and valve aspects to burn it almost completely, minimal exhaust residue) and lo and behold, I not only hear an approaching train horn in the distance, it stops just as I'm emerging from the store, and it's the OBR tourist train, discharging a fair number of passengers at Inglewood. Whether it was continuing north I can only guess, I had to make my escape to get to Georgetown in time to catch my GO bus connection for the last Mt Pleasant run into Toronto (in fact caught the second last one, I made such good time).

That's the first time I've seen, let alone met a train on the northern stretch of the OBR.

Magnificent...

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Not directly OBRY-related, but considering that Orangeville Transit and GO Busses stop at the Orangeville train station, and there aren't any other Orangeville threads, I'll post this here. It discusses transit challenges in Dufferin County.

Orangeville Transit ready to explore bus route partnership with Shelburne
Key points:

• “If I had a list of top five things people call the mayor about, transit for Shelburne is certainly one,” said Shelburne Mayor Ken Bennington. “It is not transit around Shelburne but rather connecting to the GO system. If they can get to Orangeville, then they can get to Brampton and so on.”
• The Town of Shelburne completed two comprehensive studies and submitted them to Metrolinx and officials with Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation about a year ago.
• At this point, Bennington said the ministry has advised Shelburne officials that all GO Transit routes will be studied in the next few years. GO Transit’s Orangeville to Brampton line is its “weakest” route as far as finances are concerned, the mayor added.
• There may be a bus at the end of the tunnel though, as Orangeville’s transit committee recently voted in favour of exploring a partnership with Shelburne. It is anticipated town staff will be touch with Shelburne officials to figure what might be possible from a costing point of view.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Not directly OBRY-related, however I was reading though Grey County's draft official plan, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see an emphasis on preserving rail corridors for trail uses, but more importantly for the re-introduction of rail service. The wording is quite favourably written towards rail service, so hopefully if a proponent wanted to restore rail, the county would not stand in the way.

For those unaware, Grey County stats at Dundalk on the former Owen Sound Sub RoW, and includes Owen Sounds also.

From page 133 of the draft Official Plan:

8.8 Rail Corridors

The Provincial Policy Statement says rail facilities should be protected from new development by ensuring new development is designed, buffered, and/or separated from each other. Although Grey County no longer has rail, we still have a number of former rail corridors that are primarily being used for trails. The following policies will protect these former rail corridors for trail use, and for future rail use in the event rail returns to the area:

1) The County CP Rail Trail corridor is identified as a unique and irreplaceable public asset. The County CP Rail Trail should be preserved for existing and future transportation uses, including the potential re-introduction of rail service to the County. Should rail not return, the County will continue to maintain and improve the County CP Rail Trail as a key trail connection within the overall complete transportation system.

2) The County will maintain ownership of the rail corridor right-of-way and will not permit any encroachment or easement on the rail right-of way that may compromise the return of the property to a rail use, should such an opportunity arise. Utilizing the CP Rail Trail corridor for extension of water and sewer services will be considered as well as the extension of utilities (e.g. broadband/fibre).

3) New developments proposed adjacent to the County CP Rail Trail corridor will be reviewed to ensure that the permitted uses are compatible with the existing use of the rail corridor as a trail as well as the compatibility of the potential re-introduction of rail service assuming it will occur.

4) The County encourages the conversion of abandoned railway corridors for trails and cycling routes. The County also encourages that these abandoned railway corridors remain under public ownership.

5) The development of public trails on abandoned rail corridors is appropriate in certain communities and where the trail can provide a link between communities. This will be explored further with local municipalities as part of the future Recreational Trails Master Plan and the future Trails and Cycling Plan.

 

[lenaitch]

Not directly OBRY-related, however I was reading though Grey County's draft official plan, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see an emphasis on preserving rail corridors for trail uses, but more importantly for the re-introduction of rail service. The wording is quite favourably written towards rail service, so hopefully if a proponent wanted to restore rail, the county would not stand in the way.

For those unaware, Grey County stats at Dundalk on the former Owen Sound Sub RoW, and includes Owen Sounds also.

Interesting that the County has retained ownership of the ROW. I wonder if that includes within the City of Owen Sound, because I think I have noticed that a lot of the ROW has been built over. I also wonder what the status of the ROW is in Dufferin County. I thought I recalled that at least part of it was purchased by a private entity to support a failed (for now?) aggregate pit but I don't know of its current status.