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And they said Australian Railway Crossings weren't Safe...

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 11:07 pm
by AG
The following video is of a 10 minute time period at a railway crossing in Tsurumi in Japan, which is halfway between Tokyo and Yokohama. This type of railway crossing isn't a rarity in Japan either, they are far more common than one would imagine. This Tsurumi railway crossing has 8 tracks! 2 for the Yokosaka and Shonan-Shinjuku Lines, 2 for the Keihin Tohoku Line, 2 for the Tokaido Main Line, and 2 for the Tokaido Freight Line. Also bear in mind that this video was taken outside of peak hour, so if it is this bad outside peak hour just imagine what it is like during peak hour.

Enjoy the madness!

EDIT: For those who really don't want to waste their time too much:
- At about the 3-4 minute mark one driver panics to race across and jumps the bumps formed by the tracks
- At about the 5 minute mark a bunch of pedestrians are only just starting to cross the long void as the crossing reactivates and the gates close them in


Re: And they said Australian Railway Crossings weren't Safe...

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 11:54 pm
by monotonehell
What a nice video. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happens for nine minutes and fifty seven seconds, then it ends...

Just some motorists and pedestrians crossing the tracks, and trains coming the other way. Well except for the bit at 5:00 where a few pedestrians aren't given much time to cross. But you know any city that handles the regular giant robot and Gozira attacks can handle a few trains...

Re: And they said Australian Railway Crossings weren't Safe...

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:14 am
by AG
Well I couldn't exactly have posted anything that involved anything or anyone getting hit, that isn't really appropriate material even if it is many more times interesting than watching a few cars race across and really testing their suspension on those bumps or pedestrians dashing across on the red. :D

Re: And they said Australian Railway Crossings weren't Safe...

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:53 am
by monotonehell
I especially love the torturous sounds as the vehicles bumped over the humps. And the crows! OMG the crows!
(Does this give away that I watched it twice, all the way through?) ;)

Re: And they said Australian Railway Crossings weren't Safe...

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:55 am
by Prince George
I have to confess that I loved that video, I found myself struggling to control my laughter. That first minute or so especially - just an empty train crosssing and the incessant "pling pling pling pling" from the bells with nothing to look at but the tiny flashing lights above the gates. And yet, the camera seems to be shaking around, almost as if someone actually devoted ten minutes of their life to standing there filming this scene. What was the mental state of the person that thought to themselves "I have come to this point in my life, and now I shall video the intersection"? It reminds me of Andy Wharhol's 8-hour epic Empire

Re: And they said Australian Railway Crossings weren't Safe...

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:17 am
by Wayno
Prince George wrote:It reminds me of Andy Wharhol's 8-hour epic Empire
warhol's movie cracks me up - i believe the original was only ~6hrs long, so they slowed it down (it's silent so who would notice) to generate an extra 2hours of intense drama - lol