Grade crossings and emergency braking

[jchnhtfd]

Found a rather interesting -- and very thorough -- discussion of what happens to a long freight under emergency braking: the web address is http://206.191.17.147/en/reports/rail/2001/r01m0061/r01m0061.asp if anyone is interested in looking at it...

[tree68]

Very interesting. Not often we see the reports. The photo of the squashed tank car is an eye-opener....

[mvlandsw]

Maybe the anwser is to not use an emergency application on long trains at grade crossings. It's almost always too late to stop anyway.

[Jackflash]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mvlandsw

Maybe the anwser is to not use an emergency application on long trains at grade crossings. It's almost always too late to stop anyway.

This has been done, but its almost always an issue in the courtroom later. jackflash

[jchnhtfd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

Very interesting. Not often we see the reports. The photo of the squashed tank car is an eye-opener....

Indeed...[:D] Amazing what a little run-in of slack can do, isn't it?[:o)]

[CShaveRR]

Very disturbing.

I don't know whether I would have put the train in emergency for that one...was it known by the crew that everyone was out of the car? At any rate, it sounds like, from the report, that the train went into emergency only a couple of seconds before hitting the car, though the problem was apparently seen well before that.

We have rules about the placement of long cars next to short cars, for that very reason. I don't know what can be done about an empty between heavy loads, but that was a somewhat older tank car (built before 1970, IIRC). The fact that the heaviest part of the train was the hind end, with lots of empties ahead of it, would be cause for extreme concern and frustration to most crews, especially over territory like that.

And all of these things just seemed to come together at the wrong place and time.

This also isn't the first time that EOTs capable of initiating (or repeating) an emergency brake application have been recommended. I hope they become standard, at least until electronic brakes are adopted.

[pmsteamman]

CShaveRR, two way EOTs are standard on CSX. As for loads and emptys placement the only rule we have is 30 or more loads in a block must be on the head end and 30 or more mtys in a block must be on the rear.

[UPTRAIN]

They will really put on the flay spots...and sometimes throw empties into the ditch.