Playing chicken with a train?

[Convicted One]

Paul_D_North_Jr

So I wonder, was that from the PRR, PC, CR, or NS days ?

 

Just found the picture on the web somewhere. I'm fairly confident it was a photochop......

Just a little dark humor to start the year off.

[BigJim]

zugmann

 Euclid

I think that is the important point. If you are far enough away for an emergency application to slow down enough to make much difference, there is still plenty of time for the vehicle to get out of the way. If you are so close that a collision is almost certain, it is too late for an emergency application to make much difference. It would be interesting to know exactly what went on in the case of this game of chicken.

 

Unfortunately for the people in the cab, the seconds leading up to such a decision don't normally allow for these philosophical decisions. 

You would be surprised at how fast the brain can anylize such situations!

TVOE

[traisessive1]

An on the ball engineer will dump the train from both the head and and the tail end at the same time (toggle switch for the EOT).

DP engines will go into emergency when the head end is placed into emergency. 

Load/empty sensors are quite common on new cars. 

Those 3 things drastically reduce the violent slack action that emergency applications can sometimes cause. A train going into emergency is not as big of an issue as it used to be. 

In the case of this article, the way it's written sounds like the crew jumped the gun on dumping the air. 

[Euclid]

traisessive1

In the case of this article, the way it's written sounds like the crew jumped the gun on dumping the air. 

What would give you that impression? 

[Victrola1]

I remember attending a bulk motor freight carrier's driver safety meeting. The motor carrier's bread and butter was tank trailers of hazardous materials. 

The safety supervisor reminded the drivers never swerve if a car is in your lane. Taking the ditch would increase the semi driver's chance of serious injury and death. Taking the ditch would increase the odds of tipping over and releasing hazardous materials. 

Taking the ditch would most likely allow the car in the wrong lane to flee the scene never to be seen again. The semi driver would have no proof of why they ran off the road. 

The safety supervisor instructed in such situations to slow down as safely as possible without creating a bigger disaster by risking rolling over.