Have fun with your trains
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
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QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod Mark, isn't there some additional safety in the isolated-cab variants, because high shear forces can pop the cab loose as a unit rather than deform its structure against the high momentum of the rest of the locomotive and train? Don't know whether the 'encapsulated-deck' idea of the F-111, XB-70 and Space Shuttle might be useful for some of the crash scenarii that involve safety cabs.
QUOTE: Originally posted by broncoman I would think they could devise a ejection cab like the commanche helicopters have. It would just have to be mandatory to be belted in while in the cab. I am surprised that crew are able to survive just being thrown around in the cab on impact....something about an unstoppable force and an imovable object.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod Mark, isn't there some additional safety in the isolated-cab variants, because high shear forces can pop the cab loose as a unit rather than deform its structure against the high momentum of the rest of the locomotive and train? Don't know whether the 'encapsulated-deck' idea of the F-111, XB-70 and Space Shuttle might be useful for some of the crash scenarii that involve safety cabs. I do know that I started thinking along those lines after seeing an article in Trains -- which you can probably reference exactly -- which described an Illinois Central collision with a gas truck (the locomotive was an E unit, I think an E9). The collision did very little damage to the sheet metal, but flaming fuel entered around the crack of the nose door and through the numberboards and killed the engine crew before the train slowed enough for them to exit. Ever since then, my 'locomotive designs' have had pressure-sealing windows, doors with compression sealing, and methods to displace a stiffened 'crew compartment' upward if exposed to more force than the locomotive structure can withstand. (Naturally you can't get this to work very well without full air conditioning (or perhaps better stated, 'air tempering' with separate ventilation exchange to the outside, which would be cut off in the event of collision,etc.), which wasn't cost-effective back then and in many places isn't considered so now...)
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
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