How to get a drug test on the railroad

[kreinke]

http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f95/leoncrooks/?action=view&current=Trainmeet.flv
:uhoh

[BONEY]

That'll buff right out.

[henzilla]

someone has some serious explaining to do...I noticed he did not seem to slow at all with an oncoming set of lights...maybe happens all the time?

[GeoffMiller]

When I was a railroad conductor, that kind of thing would keep me awake at night! The train which the camera was mounted in did nothing wrong. The first signal, yellow, is an approach signal meaning for the crew to be prepared to stop at the next signal or that the train will be going into a siding. They started into the siding with a diverging clear signal which says that it ok to enter the siding. Note the signal changing to a red at the last second. The oncoming train was looking at a red signal meaning they were to hold. They ran the light causing the crash. Even the switch points were correctly lined up for the train to enter the siding. Look closely at the oncoming bnsf locomotive. You can see the crew jumping out and hitting the ground! Brrrrrrrr

[kreinke]

someone has some serious explaining to do...I noticed he did not seem to slow at all with an oncoming set of lights...maybe happens all the time?

I'm somewhat of an armchair railroader so I can give you a little narrative.
This film was taken in what is called CTC territory meaning Centralized Traffic Control. All train movements are controlled by a dispatcher slicking a computer mouse at some distant office.

There are probably hundreds of these very same meets performed each day without incident but when something goes wron it ain't pretty.

The crew on the locomotive on which the camera was mounted was not at fault because they were taking the siding. The signals gave them clearance to enter the siding and the switch was line properly.

In this case, the other crew, the ones on the main line, were supposed to stop and for whatever reason (incompetence, improper braking, etc) could not get their train stopped short of the red signal facing their direction. If you look closely you can see smoke, lots of it, emanating from the opposing train indicating he was doing some very hard braking.

What do I think? If a train knows he has to stop in the clear he has to extinguish his headlights telling the other train he's stopped. The opposing train had his lights on "hi-beam". I believe the opposing engineer either didn't see the previous approach signal a couple of mile back (an approach is kind of a yellow light telling a train the they have to stop at the NEXT signal) and were going fast enough he couldn't stop.

That of course does not eliminate the possibility of dispatcher error, however.

[kreinke]

Even the switch points were correctly lined up for the train to enter the siding. Look closely at the oncoming bnsf locomotive. You can see the crew jumping out and hitting the ground! Brrrrrrrr

Railroading is a lot like riding a motorcycle. Your always looking out for the other guy.
I wonder if the guy that jumped survived or if he had the locomotive laying on top of him when it rolled over?

[dlearl476]

Railroading is a lot like riding a motorcycle.


So is that the Railroad equivalent of "layin' it down to avoid a crash?" :dance

[GeoffMiller]

An engineer friend of mine told me that there is nothing like the view in the rear view mirror of a freight car cartwheeling end over end. It was always a debate whether to jump or ride it out. Newer locomotives have a lot of crash protect ion. I always thought that I would hit the deck and stay onboard. The physics are mind boggling. The approaching 4400hp locomotive weighs over 500000 lbs. Depending on the train, the total could be over 10000 tons. The only time that I would think about jumping is if we were going to hit a gas tanker at a grade crossing. Anything else and the debate is to hit the floor or stay in yer seat cause its going to be really interesting