It was originally scheduled to be shown about a month ago. I wonder why they pulled it at the last minute.
Mark
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
my guess is that that clip will wind up in a NM safety film or two - especially the stroller
dd
ericsp wrote: I noticed some white boxcars in the background.
I noticed some white boxcars in the background.
Are those the ones with the shackles inside?
TheAntiGates wrote:what did they conclude?
NOTICE - If you haven't seen the show and don't want to know how it comes out - don't read this!
The pointy end did more "damage" than the blunt end of the train, but it was all the 'bow wave.' They didn't find any suction.... On the other hand, mom standing too close to the tracks with junior in his stroller when the train blows through at 79 mph will have her hands full, and baby may well get hurt.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Dan
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
TheAntiGates wrote:Thanks tree,My "gut" was that the popular perception of suction was more a side affect of people bracing against the initial shock wave, which after it had passed, they tended to over compensate.The combination of the muscles finding equilibrium coupled with the breeze, feeling like suction.At least that is my experience in subways
They used a dummy, albeit of an appropriate weight, so the whole bracing/overcompensating thing wasn't really addressed. Considering the force of the bow wave (measured at over 40 mph), it is entirely possible that a person could be knocked akilter, then lose their balance and fall into the train if it was long enough (or behind it if it wasn't). But it wouldn't be suction that did it.
tree68 wrote:, it is entirely possible that a person could be knocked akilter, then lose their balance and fall into the train if it was long enough (or behind it if it wasn't). But it wouldn't be suction that did it.
, it is entirely possible that a person could be knocked akilter, then lose their balance and fall into the train if it was long enough (or behind it if it wasn't). But it wouldn't be suction that did it.
I can believe that train suction is a myth, but I have experienced NASCAR suction. I used to work as a track worker for the SoCal region of the Sports Car Club of America, the California Sports Car Club. We routinely provided Flag and Communications workers for NASCAR when they raced at Riverside Raceway (of blessed memory).
I often got the job of manning, alone, the Black Board flag position. This was on the back straight just after the vehicle bridge. NASCAR used a track configuration that gave them a very long straight runup to the bridge. They reached well over 150 MPH as they blasted by into the Turn 9 sweeping hairpin.
My job was to be a repeater of the Black Flag information displayed at the Start/Finish line. I had a metal number board, magnetic numbers, one Black flag, and one "Meatball" flag. The "Meatball" was displayed if the black flag was for a mechanical reason; the plain black flag if the driver had been a bad boy.
So I listened for the command to fly the appropriate black flag, put the car number on the board, and showed the driver both as he screamed by at absolute top speed. I normally watched approaching cars standing back from the track so that only my head was visible to the driver. When I spotted the car I was to flag, I moved out to within 4 or 5 feet from the edge of the track and showed him the flag. The cars were usually right at my edge of the track to set up for Turn 9. The bow wave wasn't so bad but the suction behind the car was scary. I generally braced myself against being sucked toward the track and retreated as soon as possible. With cars running nose to tail at those speeds you really had to be careful.
I did this kind of thing for 30 years and it was hard work for no pay under sometimes harsh conditions, but it was the best seat in the house.
Jack
When hooping up orders to a train, one must stand pretty close to the track - the poles aren't all that long. I never worried about suction, and after the engineer (or fireman) snatched the orders, you could hear the train pick up speed and the caboose was really travelling when it went by. Very hard to keep the hoop steady so the orders can be snatched. The conductor is supposed to have the orders but if it just an info type order, I would never give a 'wash-out' signal which would mean the train would have to back up.
There was a hill at one tower and a train could really pick up speed coming off that hill toward the tower. The senior men cautioned me to hold back the signal so the hogger would have to slow way down, then give him the signal, race down the steps, and hold up the hoop. Engine noise would drown out the epithets; never could hear what I was called.
Art
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