Railroad Crossing

“Someone may have to die before they straighten all this out.”

Ron Stacy, Mayor of Wartrace, Tennessee

Photo by Jerry Huddleston

Folks in Wartrace, Tennessee (population 548) grapple with a problem rare in most small towns: traffic jams. But their backups aren’t caused by cars, trucks or even tractors. They’re caused by trains. CSX trains travel through Wartrace on a regular basis. This isn’t a problem until two trains have to pass one another and one has to pull over onto a siding. Trains, which can move a whole lot of goods for relatively little money, have gotten a lot longer in the last few years and outgrown their sidings. Now when a train pulls over, it often blocks the highway going through Wartrace and stays that way for a good hour or longer. It’s an inconvenience for all and life threatening for some. Fire fighters and EMTs responding to emergency calls lose valuable time backtracking and rerouting around the trains.

CSX is aware of the problem and has hired a “train master” to fix it, finally. Town leaders in Wartrace have been complaining about the train blockades since 1999. They’re just happy CSX is finally listening and hope they’re on the right track to a final solution.

Read more → Brian Mosely, Critical condition: Trains block access in Wartrace, Shelbyville Times-Gazette, February 1, 2012.