RR Swing Bridge West of I-5 on Columbia River

[Ironhorse74]

I have had it with this bonehead. He will not answer calls to Railroad Swing Bridge. Instead he dresses you down for not consulting the chart for his call sign. Even if you use his call sign he will keep you on the upstream side as long as possible caught between two bridges. He mad a friend in a power cat remove his antennas instead of opening the bridge.

Anyone else had issues with this guy? I am going to make a complaint to the FRA for him being a hazard to navigation.

[xymotic]

Oh the horror! He made a guy follow the rules and remove an antenna!!?? egads!!!

[Ironhorse74]

Originally Posted by xymotic

Oh the horror! He made a guy follow the rules and remove an antenna!!?? egads!!!

Please do show me the rule that says you must remove antennas and go under a fixed section of the bridge. I am unaware of this rule.

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse74

Please do show me the rule that says you must remove antennas and go under a fixed section of the bridge. I am unaware of this rule.

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations:


§ 117.11 Unnecessary opening of the draw.

top
No vessel owner or operator shall—

(a) Signal a drawbridge to open if the vertical clearance is sufficient to allow the vessel, after all lowerable nonstructural vessel appurtenances that are not essential to navigation have been lowered, to safely pass under the drawbridge in the closed position; or

[Ironhorse74]

I would make the argument that my VHF is essential to navigation. I wonder if you had a bridge with 30 foot clearence and a sailboat that was 31 foot to the top of a vhf antenna. Would it be reasonable to make the sailboat climb the mast and remove the 18 inch antenna?

[webejammin]

Sorry to hear you have a stuborn RR bridge worker. I try to be as nice to the guys in the RR bridge control room as I can, the RR bridge is a couple hundred yards from our marina down stream. If my wife is on the boat I let her talk to the bridge operator ,maybe it helps she has a nice voice. Lately there have been lots of coal cars coming from the east down the Columbia river so the RR tracks are really busy and we waite more often in the last year mostly from the coal trains. I understand there have been lots of discussion on not wanting 45 min long coal trains to hold up yachts, barges and auto intersecions, so we get lots of shoter trains closing the river traffic. We can't win this.

[Ironhorse74]

This bonehead has even torn up my girl friend on the radio. He seems to take particular delight in harrassing the women.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse74

This bonehead has even torn up my girl friend on the radio. He seems to take particular delight in harrassing the women.

Record the conversations.
Find out which railroad runs the bridge.
Send them the recordings.

If nothing else the guy will be more polite.

[Tingum]

Sorry but if antennas are foldable they, along with sport fish outriggers, should be lowered. A lowered VHF antenna works fine for short range transmissions. " XYMOTIC " is correct, it is an unnecessary opening. That said the recording is a good idea.

[Cheechako]

Yeah... but think of it from his side....he has to quit reading his book or surfing the porn... just to open the damn bridge!

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse74

I would make the argument that my VHF is essential to navigation. I wonder if you had a bridge with 30 foot clearence and a sailboat that was 31 foot to the top of a vhf antenna. Would it be reasonable to make the sailboat climb the mast and remove the 18 inch antenna?

You would lose that argument. AND the vhf will still work with the antenna's down. So double fail.

An antenna atop a sailboat mast is permanently affixed, therefore 'not lowerable.'

AND, if your friend was so bent out of shape about it he should not have them on folding mounts. But I'm betting he lowers them to get into a boathouse. The Bridge operator sounds like kind of a jerk, but not about this.

A boat should not be blocking traffic and trains 'just cuz' If you can go under a bridge without it opening then you should, pretty simple stuff really.

[Ironhorse74]

Xmotic the US Coast Guard disagrees with you. I filed a complaint with them today. Seems they get several complaints a month about this bridge. Mostly due to the operator's animosity towards recreational boat.

[xymotic]

Coast guard disagrees about what exactly? "several Complaints a month" and yet... they guy is still there.

Hmmm, I'm thinking maybe there is a clue in there somewhere...

He doesn't have to (and shouldn't) open for boats that don't need it. And OBVIOUSLY he doesn't need to be particularly nice either. so, um...

[bobconnie]

Iron Horse, Ya atta move down here!! rail and local bridges and there attendants are as nice as ya could ask for !! In our colvin we were only 51 ft top of mast, and could get under some of the bridges with out opening, now our new to us boat is 61 ft and it requires opening everywhere !!LOL The only time its sucks is after 7pm,some of the local bridges require 4 hours notice to open after that time !! but they will still come and open !! I think this guy just has an attitude prob!! Hope it gets better and maybe a call to the railroad folks might help ?? just a thought

[Ironhorse74]

Bob and Connie

I called the BNSF. They didn't think I was important enough to call back. I filed a complaint with the FRA also. I bet they call the FRA back.

What is funny is that there is a draw bridge on I-5 3/4 of mile from boneheads bridge. Those guys are nice as can be.

I was working on the boat today and was monitoring Channel 13 and recording bonehead. Commercial traffic calls it the Vancouver railroad bridge and bonehead is right on opening it.

Recreational traffic gets admonished to use his call sign. Bonehead also seems to like to pick on the women more than the guys. Nothing but a bully.