The story is that to get the major drag reduction, the two bodies have to be pretty close together -- there are studies that missing containers in stack trains, uneven cars in freight trains, truck trailer and truck tractor with a big gap are all pretty draggy. It is also said that you could save gas if you drove your car behind a truck.
I have run some experiments with driving behind trucks, SUVs and minivans while monitoring a gas mileage computer (ScanGauge). Now driving too close to a truck is not recommended and driving while monitoring some instrumentation in your car may also be a concern. But I found that you don't have to follow that closely to have an effect. Driving between 1 and 2 seconds separation (4-8 car lengths) can result in as much as a 10 percent reduction in gas mileage (like going from 32 to 35 MPH).
A couple things I have noticed. A regular truck is not the best because it breaks the wind up high -- campers that break the wind closer to the road appear to work better. If you have any appreciable crosswind, you lose the effect. Remember I am not tailgating anyone on account of safety considerations, I am just driving a normal traffic separation, and you can see the turbo-lag smoke come off the stacks of a truck during gear shifts and see it drift off to the side of the road before it gets to me.
The other problem is that while SUVs make good windbreaks, a lot of these vehicles are driven 10 over the limit -- without crosswinds, you can get gas mileage readings at 75 that you would otherwise get at 60, but I don't feel comfortable driving that fast.
But driving aside, the observation is that the windbreak tail of a vehicle such as a truck or train is pretty long and crosswinds interact with that tail. So what you experience on the train platform may depend on both the kind of train and what the winds are doing.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Driving between 1 and 2 seconds separation (4-8 car lengths) can result in as much as a 10 percent reduction in gas mileage (like going from 32 to 35 MPH).
I see you haven't been watching any NASCAR races.
Is this in any way related to the fact that if a person jumps off of a tall building they get sucked into the wall before they hit the ground?
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I haven't seen anything in the "prologue" to suggest that this segment will be there.
(toward the end of the show): Black powder and air tanks to cause propulsion. I won't say the program sucked, but no trains did!
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
After 29 years on the railroad (yesterday was the anniversary according to the RRB) I can say I have never experienced any suction on my person which would pull me into a train. What I have experienced is a form of vertigo which draws you towards large objects you are close to. Try walking down between two tracks full on cars in one of those old yards with very narrow space between the tracks and you will think you are drunk as you try to avoid brushing against the cars on either side. The effect gets even worse if you are close to a track with cars which are moving. at even slow speeds. So based upon my experiences in the yards and on the mainlines I think the suction of the train is bunk and just an old wives' tale so far as this suction pulling people into moving trains. I even had a driver try to tell me how his automobile was sucked into the side of a train at a grade crossing he had stopped behind the gates for. Sure kid, perhaps that will work with your Dad but not with me.
I will be watching for the results from the TV program should it ever run.
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