That's the best one yet. My son had to put 3 18" diameter rocks on his corner lot to stop the short-cutting, but after a couple of years the grass looks fine. The city never said anything since it helped the snowplows find the corner that was otherwise obscured by snow.
I could give you all sorts of advice and alternatives, but I don't live where you do, so I will not waste your time, since it may be all different where you live. I'd take it to City Hall and ask them what to do. But then, you might be opening a can of worms, as they will send a crew to fix the curb, followed by a bill. I would investigate anonymously if you could put a boulder. If you can legally do it, your problem will go away in a day or two.
Top posted for your convenience, as anyone who is following this thread has already read the body once.
Steve
"Bob F" wrote in news:hj5r3i$mt5$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:
Our town recently made an ordinance that nothing can be in the right of way. I bet if somebody complained the homeowner would get in trouble. Doesn't seem fair.
There is another way you can go. Set 8x16 concrete blocks in there about 12" apart (railroad tie sort of thing) and be sure they are proud of the soil line a bit with a 4-" deep gap between them. It would be unpleasant to drive over but do no serious damage
If you could find some railroad torpedoes and place them between some steel plates for the miscreants to run over, perhaps that would get their attention.
"JIMMIE" wrote
I hadnt seen any of those since my grandfather died. He ran a depot for the G&F railroad and we found a wooden box of them in the attic.
Jimmie
Googling them, and reading about the fourth answer down, it describes them and their use. They were actually small pieces of dynamite. They were put on dark tracks where a train had broken down, and sometimes had to be put miles away from the stationary train by a railway worker walking on the tracks. They had to be far enough so that any approaching train would have room enough to stop.
They were discontinued when radio, cell phone, and electronic monitoring outdated them. They were packed from the factory in wooden boxes and mixed with sawdust. You had both a neat antique, and something VERY dangerous in your hands.
Steve
Hi, I live on a corner lot too. As soon as I moved there planted dense cottneaster hedges about 3.5 feet(legal max. height re: driver's field of view) No one drives over curb.
-snip-
Oh no! He's been assimilated by the mormon.
Find your snippers, man!
Jim
Official looking sign:
NO RIGHT TURN
I used to spend a lot of time with my grandfather at the depot when I was little. The G&F was going out of business and their usually wasnt a need for the train to stop. Grandpa would put a couple of these out on the tracks if he had outgoing freight. Not having to stop at every little whistle stop helped keep the train on time. I've cut a couple open before and they are not dynamite. Smelled and burned more like match heads. They give a pretty good blast when the train runs over one but I've hit them with a sledge hammmer and its not even like a good firecracker. IF you put one in a fire it just fizzles and burns. My guess is because the wrappings on them dont provide much of a containment for the blast. You need the wheel on the train to really compress it enough to get a good explosion.
Jimmie
For the record, I am making a concerted effort NOT to top post, and to snip my posts this year. In some cases, after the thread has gone on for a while, I believe that if a person doesn't know what's going on, they don't have the right to kvetch about top posting, and besides, top posting to a long starter post is easier for me than posting it all again when you're answering the whole body of the post. Now, if you're just replying to one section of the post, then snip and answer that one part.
Or just top post EVERYTHING and then your banner for your favorite religion du jour.
And, for the record, I was UNassimilated by the Mormons when I asked to be removed from their records in 1981.
So, bottom line, I'm trying to do better, both in the areas of top posting/snipping, and scriptural paths.
But not to worry, if I ever feel Mormon engulfment again, I shall put out a call for help.
Steve
So why include it at all?
I used to spend a lot of time with my grandfather at the depot when I was little. The G&F was going out of business and their usually wasnt a need for the train to stop. Grandpa would put a couple of these out on the tracks if he had outgoing freight. Not having to stop at every little whistle stop helped keep the train on time. I've cut a couple open before and they are not dynamite. Smelled and burned more like match heads. They give a pretty good blast when the train runs over one but I've hit them with a sledge hammmer and its not even like a good firecracker. IF you put one in a fire it just fizzles and burns. My guess is because the wrappings on them dont provide much of a containment for the blast. You need the wheel on the train to really compress it enough to get a good explosion.
Jimmie
What I figgered, too, after watching the guy do a demonstration in youtube, fireworks, kind of ......... railroad torpedos. He said they smelled like caps. When I was a kid, and you could buy such hazardous devices that they outlaw now, we had cap guns. We would take a roll and smack one little cap after another to make a bang. Then we would take a whole roll and make a BIG bang, like a good firecracker.
But I did read in that other Google report from an old railroad article that they were actually made of dynamite, and some explosives will burn and not explode. It takes the impact of something to get them to pop. The guy in the youtube pic did drop a hammer on one, and it popped, but like you, I think the compression of the wheel would make a louder pop. The train yard police used to carry cherry bombs as big as your thumb with water proof fuses to throw at hobos, too.
Steve
Yes, if you go the rock route, make sure they're as large as possible and unlikely to move. I remember my dad once found one of about 10" diameter in the middle of the road - it *had* been on a corner, but someone else had hit it and obviously couldn't be bothered to move it from where their car had dragged it.
"Caution: land mines"
In many localities that area is an easement right of way for the road. If you put something in it and the results are damages to someones car they can force you to pay for those damages. So I'd think twice about putting stuff out there that people might run over.
That is right on. I have an old book that talks about how to make these. Basically you use a paper mache wrapper around some rough gravel (similar to fish tank gravel) and the filler is potassium chlorate and sulfur (60:40 as I recall) AKA fulminating powder When the mixture gets ground up between the rough rocks it "fulminates" (goes bang). You can also get this stuff to go off if you hit it with a hammer or similar implement. I suspect it is also what was in "caps" (as in cap gun). I guess you have to be old to know what that was.
The report about them being dynamite may have been a reporter who didn't know any better. These days, reporters often think all rifles are AK-47.
TDD
Looks like they are driving over he water. What is the arrow on the driveway (a pointer for gas line?)? Call the utilities and suggest there is a danger and may get worse.
pic:
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