Railroad signals tangle traffic

One car after another approached the railroad crossing at Lawrence Street between West Third and Fourth avenues in downtown Eugene Friday afternoon — and stopped at the lowered crossing arm. And watched the flashing red lights. And listened to the clanging bell warning them a train was approaching. And waited.

But no train was coming. Not for most of the 90 minutes or so, anyway, that three gate crossings on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were closed.

The closed crossings, at the Lincoln, Lawrence and Washington street crossings, resulted in scores of frustrated motorists deciding to just go ahead and drive their vehicle around the gates and across the tracks from about 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Some chose to just turn around, including a Lane Transit District EmX bus that had to awkwardly back up at the intersection of Lawrence and West Fourth, bending itself like an accordion.

Tom Weaver, a ShelterCare employee, took matters into his own hands at the Washington Street crossing and turned himself into a crossing guard.

“I’m trying to discourage people from crossing,” said Weaver, who discovered the problem about 3:45 p.m. when traffic was backed up so far on Washington that he couldn’t get his car into the parking lot of ShelterCare’s West Fourth building.

Told cars were just going around the closed gates on Lawrence Street a block away, Weaver said: “That’s just never a good idea.”

The bespectacled Weaver, with an earring in his left ear and dressed in blue jeans and a gray Miami Dolphins sweatshirt, looked like he knew what he was doing, quickly crossing his arms to signal motorists and motioning west to the Jefferson Street crossing where the gates were not down.

“One more street over!” he kept hollering at motorists, gesturing by shooting his right arm across his body.

Weaver said he called a non-emergency number for the Eugene Police Department but just got a recording.

A call to Union Pacific, which operates the train tracks, provided little information as to why the gates were stuck.

An employee who answered the phone in “signal operations” in Omaha, Neb., where Union Pacific is based, said he was aware of the problem but was not allowed to say what happened.

“All I know is it’s been repaired,” said the man who declined to give his name. Asked if there was a local railroad number in Eugene to call for more information, the man said there was but he declined to provide it.

A Union Pacific employee was on the scene during the incident, at one point on his hands and knees looking at a map as he spoke on the phone from inside a control room at the Lincoln Street crossing. The employee said he had no idea what was causing the problem.

Only one train came through, about 4:35 p.m., while the gates were stuck.

Weaver was worried because so many cars had just been crossing a block away at Lawrence Street.

As the train approached, Weaver got a startled look in his eyes.

“Did you see that!” he said. “A lady just rode in front of the train down there on her bike.”

The problem was finally solved just after 5 p.m. when a four-car train appeared from the west and drove slowly across the tracks at the Washington Street crossing, then backed up.

Suddenly the gates rose and the problem was solved. Crossing gates often can be remotely controlled from trains.

The crossing gates at Lawrence and Lincoln streets could be seen rising, too.

“Hey, are they fixed?” asked Weaver, a maintenance manager with ShelterCare. “OK,” he said, starting to make his way south on Washington. “That better be it. It’s exhausting doing that for an hour and a half.”