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NS Crew Fired After Graniteville Crash
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heavyd: There is such a thing as a trailing switch, or a trailing move through a switch, but one train following another is simply "following." That's all. Trailing is not a term I've ever heard or used, but we do use "following movement" about ten thousand times every day. <br /> <br />Usually there is NOT communication between two trains following each other. There doesn't need to be any. The dispatcher assigns authority for movement to each train, and while they might be aware of the other by overhearing that radio communication, or by observing how the signals fall, or because they looked at a crew lineup before they left their initial terminal, or engage in chit-chat, there's no reason they'd have to know about each other or talk to each other in the general case (there are always exceptions, of course). <br /> <br />In the case at hand, one train was tied-up on an industrial track. The crew was off-duty and gone. The other train arrived some time later, entered the track at speed, and collided with the parked train. They happened to hit engine-to-engine, but that means nothing, as the train in the industrial track was a non-directional movement the moment it entered it. Apparently the switch leading to the industrial track was "reversed," or "open," that is, lined for that track instead of for the main track. Reason why is not yet released. The line is not signaled and is operated under a type of verbal movement authority. <br /> <br />There's little else to know, or worth knowing, or that can be said, at this point. <br /> <br />Brad: FRA has proposed that (mandated that?) already. Whether it has any actual value is debatable. I think that it will be a net negative -- the time and effort spent complying with it will detract from attention to other safety measures of equal or greater risk, plus it will require a lot of walking back and forth -- and that right there is a hazard. Railroads are full of trip-and-fall hazards, and every trip on foot is a new opportunity to find one. <br /> <br />OS
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