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Paul and Norris,  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> Where to begin?  You guys misunderstand my viewpoint on this, and I think you are going overboard in your assumption of the supremacy of running trains full speed with no visibility because cab signals tell them everything they need to know, and they can’t stop in time for the unexpected anyway. <o:p></o:p> First of all, with regard to my viewpoint on this, set aside completely any concern about running into people who should not be in the way.  What I am saying in previous posts here has nothing whatsoever to do with that issue.  Bystanders and motorist are supposed to stay out of the way of trains, and if it is too foggy to see, they must act accordingly.   <o:p></o:p> I am not suggesting that trains slow down to make anybody safer except for those on board.  But if railroad companies or engineers don’t want to slow down, I could not care less.  Run as fast as you want.   I am just looking at the objective reality that there is a windshield and a view ahead of a thousand things that could be wrong.  So it seems bizarre to suggest that there is no difference between seeing the view ahead and not seeing it.  This is not analogous to flying airplanes with instruments.  Why place signs along the track if there is no need to see them?   <o:p></o:p> My point about the speed limit and curves was directed at Norris’s suggestion that if an engineer were expected to slow down for the visibility limitations of fog or weather, might they not be expected to also slow down for the visibility limitations of curves?  What I meant in my response to him was that the limited sight of curves is a known, and unchanging limitation that is deemed acceptable for the maximum allowable speed at the location of curves, whereas fog is a variable occurrence that can reduce the visibility more than the curves do. <o:p></o:p> Don said: “visibility has to be good enough for the engineer to know where he is on the railroad. His knowledge of his territory and movement authority (by any means) takes care of the rest. There are no other provisions that tie safe operations to visibility.”    Does not that provision in and of itself completely tie safe operation to visibility?  How can an engineer know where he is at on the railroad if he cannot see beyond his windshield?
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