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There are some communities that have 'no horn' crossings. I guess that the people in the neighborhood managed to convince (bribe) the right people to get that to happen, because god forbid a train might wake them up.
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Nov 17, 2012 08:11
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Fire Storm posted:I know that's the case where I live. There's a level crossing at the end of my street and they blow their horn no matter what time of the day or night it is. I'd rather they did that than have someone die because they didn't realize the train was coming. There are some areas where the local municipalities have involved the federal government to prevent trains from sounding their air horns at level grade crossings. This may be a result of that...(man I hope I'm wrong)
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Nov 17, 2012 08:19
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And then the news comes in that 48 kindergarten children died in Egypt when their school bus was struck by a train.
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Nov 17, 2012 13:03
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Quiet zones are the bane of a railroaders existence. We have more collisions (at least in my part of the world) with people/cars/etc. in quiet zones than we do on the rest of our 700+ mile territory.
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Nov 17, 2012 18:06
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http://www.stbfinancedocket35087.com/html/quietzoneinfo.htmlquote:A quiet zone is one or more public grade crossings where the railroad is excused from sounding the familiar "long-long-short-long" horn sequence upon a train's approach to a grade crossing. It is important to note that this does not mean that a train will never sound its horn within an established quiet zone. Federal regulations and railroad operating rules require that the engineer sound the train's horn in several instances, such as when approaching people or equipment working on the right-of-way. Moreover, engineers are permitted to sound the horn in a quiet zone if they believe that a situation exists that warrants operation of the horn, such as the presence of pedestrians or animals crossing over the tracks. A quiet zone is unrelated to other sounds associated with railroads, such as engine noise or the sounds of cars moving on the rails. A quiet zone was established in my town a few years ago. In order to avoid the expense of installing a median down the center of the road to prevent people crossing into the other lane two streets which are used frequently by residents to avoid going through the center of town were turned into one ways. They did opposite of what would actually make sense, forcing the traffic to cross itself going both ways:  That's how I have to go to and from work. gently caress quiet zones. Disgruntled Bovine fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Nov 17, 2012 |
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Nov 17, 2012 18:34
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I was travelling on a long distance train yesterday, first car, second floor. About 15 minutes after leaving the station there was a sound like a faint clang and the train gently braked to a stop from a speed of about 80 kph. Some time later the conductor made an announcement: someone had jumped in front of the train and died instantly. The police and an ambulance crew came and went and after 50 minutes the train continued with a new driver (the policy here is to always get a new driver when this happens).
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Nov 17, 2012 19:09
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cyberbug posted:The police and an ambulance crew came and went and after 50 minutes the train continued with a new driver (the policy here is to always get a new driver when this happens). I think that is policy every where. It is an automatic 3 days off.... 4 if you act like a little sissy.
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Nov 17, 2012 19:10
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Nov 17, 2012 21:03
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NASA have a proper sized version of this - hello new wallpaper
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Nov 17, 2012 21:27
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Here is a couple little railroad anecdotes from an oldhead who is not just retired now, but took the last train west many years ago. While operating in Denver, back in the days where Coors Field (where the Colorado Rockies play baseball) was a yard, he was working a local servicing the various industries. They were street running. For those of you who may not know the phrase, this is where tracks are embedded right down the middle of the streets for various distances, and the trains seem to just be driving down the street. These movements must always be made at low speed and with lots of bell and whistle going the whole time. So it is early morning, a little light in the sky, not much traffic, and they had just delivered their last car to a business at the end of a one way street, and are now moving a few miles back down the one way street. It is basically their only way in or out of this whole area. They are running with just the locomotive back to a group of cars miles away they have gathered up and left behind. Suddenly a Denver Police department squad car rolls up behind them lights and siren, the works. He tells them to stop. They ignore him. Luckily he has enough sense not to get in front of them. He pulls up even with the left side of the locomotive, and tells the conductor, who is the story teller here, to stop the train over the PA. The conductor slides his window open and takes a bite of his sandwich and says, "I'm not the one driving". Then slides his window closed. The officer pulls to the right side and up to the engineers window and tells him to "stop", because they are "going the wrong way down a one way street". The engineer tells him to "go gently caress himself because he is busy driving" and slides his window closed. The officer moves back to the conductors window, and continues to angrily command them to stop, and states that he will suspend their drivers license. As they approach where the road comes to a bend, where the tracks leave the street and continue straight, there is going to be nowhere for the officer to follow. Seeing his chance the conductor opens his window, points up to an airplane taking off from Stapleton Airport, and says, "hey officer, give him a try next, he is flying the wrong way down your street.." 
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Nov 17, 2012 21:30
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JingleBells posted:NASA have a proper sized version of this - hello new wallpaper  Yes, it goes on two tracks, with locomotives pulling or pushing it on both. You can see one on the upper left.
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Nov 17, 2012 22:28
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A long time ago, I would have thought, "that's bullshit" but after dealing with more and more LEOs, I can believe that story.
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Nov 17, 2012 22:30
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InterceptorV8 posted:A long time ago, I would have thought, "that's bullshit" but after dealing with more and more LEOs, I can believe that story. I have heard stories where in the case of a crossing accident with a fatality, the local law enforcement wanted to search the belongings of the train crew for contraband and were told to get bent. You are warned over and over in the event of a crossing accident or any other accident to never provide a drivers license to a policeman. One of my guys was screamed at by a policeman because he said he didn't have one. He kept giving him his paper printed railroad license card (we have actual cards now) and the cop was flipping out. He asked, "how the gently caress can you drive a train if you don't have a drivers license." The honest response is, "one is not needed". The problem is that there is a habit, especially in places that have laws that require at least one person at the scene of an accident to receive a ticket, since the other party is deceased, to try sometimes to ticket the engineer. If you give them your real drivers license, it will go against your driving record, jack up your insurance, or all of the above. That is why we are warned to never give a cop our drivers license, only the locomotive license.
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Nov 18, 2012 01:15
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B4Ctom1 posted:The problem is that there is a habit, especially in places that have laws that require at least one person at the scene of an accident to receive a ticket, since the other party is deceased, to try sometimes to ticket the engineer. If you give them your real drivers license, it will go against your driving record, jack up your insurance, or all of the above. That's what I was always taught when I was a conductor at the streetcar company in Dallas, TX. There was a night my motorman and I were going the wrong way down the road (in a stretch where the company had been doing so in the course of normal operations for 20 years) and we had a rookie cop "pull us over" and was trying to get us to hand over licenses so he could write us a ticket, to no avail. He was getting pretty frustrated, and was red in the face when a cop that I had worked with several times on previous occasions rolled up and asked what was going on. When I explained, he excused himself and his coworker, pulled the rookie cop around the corner, and berated him for doing something so stupid. I heard "what the gently caress were you thinking" several times. The Chief Operating Officer of the same company once told me about a day where they stopped their largest streetcar, weighing approximately 25 tons, at a normal stop, and something went really wrong and they could not get it to move in either direction. The COO was there along with two mechanics trying to figure out what was up so they could get the streetcar out of traffic, as it was backing up pretty badly. A cop rolled up and continually threatened to have the streetcar towed. The COO finally got sick of that and said something like, "Listen, Corporal Cupcake, if you have a tow truck that can move this thing, by all means, please call it, and have them drop it off at our shop because IT'S NOT GOING TO MOVE BY ITSELF." I don't miss street running.
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Nov 18, 2012 05:08
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B4Ctom1 posted:That is why we are warned to never give a cop our drivers license, only the locomotive license. I love it when cops threaten us.... Luckily in my terminal we have a UPRR cop. We had a local fued with the police for blocking a busy crossing. To make a story finished, the UPRR cop issued a citation to the police officer for trespassing or something. Railroad police have quite a bit of power... So don't gently caress with them. Luckily our officer is a pretty chill guy.
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Nov 18, 2012 06:26
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Cops really run the gamut just as everyone else does... what amazes me is how one department can employ the bitterest, angriest rear end in a top hat in the world and next to him will be the complete opposite. You'd think they would have some method for dealing with that.
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Nov 18, 2012 15:38
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Das Volk posted:Cops really run the gamut just as everyone else does... what amazes me is how one department can employ the bitterest, angriest rear end in a top hat in the world and next to him will be the complete opposite. You'd think they would have some method for dealing with that.
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Nov 18, 2012 17:49
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InitialDave posted:Yes, they make them partners. You never seen a buddy cop movie? The foamers as the adorable, slobbery canine who just doesn't get along with Cop A, but is Cop B's buddy.. but eventually takes a bullet for Cop A.. and survives right before the fade to credits over some corporate 80s rock song.
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Nov 18, 2012 17:55
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On that crash in Midland, Texas:Brother Jonathan posted:Right now, most of the blame seems to fall on the driver of the float, but the police seem to have contributed by planning for the traffic throughout the route except for that one spot. The driver of the float is looking worse and worse as more details come out. The NTSB has released a timeline based on video and data recorders: (The time is seconds before the collision.) 20 sec.: Bells and lights activated as first tractor trailer is safely crossing the tracks 13 sec.: Gates start to descend 12 sec.: Front of the second tractor trailer starts crossing in front of the train 9 sec.: Train starts sounding its horn 5 sec.: Train engineer uses emergency brake (source: NBC) So the truck driver entered the crossing as the bells and flashing lights were going off and one second after the gates started to drop. The news media are saying that the truck driver's name has not yet been released, but with these new facts, he is probably fearing for his safety.
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Nov 19, 2012 09:41
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Here are a couple of shots of the 1941 Allegheny Locomotive at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI.  Here I am at 5'9" standing next to the locomotive. 
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Nov 19, 2012 18:09
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bung posted:Here are a couple of shots of the 1941 Allegheny Locomotive at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI. The Allegheny were amazingly powerful locomotives, generating up to 7,500 h.p. I was just reading news on steam preservation, and I was surprised to learn that the Clover Valley Lumber Co. No. 4, a 2-6-6-2T "Mallet"-type locomotive, has been put back into operation. (The Alleghenies were also Mallets, i.e. articulated.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4fDTW1fjKs It is only the second Mallet still running. Also, when I think of tank engines, I think of those little 0-4-0ST engines that Thomas the Tank Engine was based on. It is weird seeing a tank on a Mallet!
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Nov 19, 2012 22:01
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Want to run a train down the steepest mainline rail grade in North America? Well, here's a video which will tell you how to do just that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IABM8UPplY&feature=share
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Nov 20, 2012 06:22
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 Technically a Mallet is a compound articulated locomotive where high pressure steam goes to the cylinders powering the rear set of drivers first, which then exhaust into the larger low pressure cylinders powering the front set of drivers. It's the name of a french fellow who invented the design. The Allegheny is a simple articulated, IE: all of its cylinders are high pressure. That's part of why it's able to generate such phenomenal horsepower (highest of any articulated locomotive). The most amazing thing about the Allegheny was the size of it's firebox, which required 3 trailing axles to carry it, and allowed the generation of the enormous amounts of steam necessary to produce 7500 drawbar horsepower. The unfortunate thing is it only generated that level of horsepower at above 45 mph and the two railroads who owned them, the C&O and Virginian, used these locomotives like slow compound Mallets, usually below 25 mph. Both of these roads were primary coal haulers (almost exclusively so in the case of the Virginian) so in a way that's not surprising, I just wonder how Lima sold them on the idea given how wasted these locomotives were in the use they were put to. It's a great marvel that two of them survive today especially when there is only one surviving example of the most common articulated wheel arrangement, the 2-8-8-2.
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Nov 20, 2012 06:27
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:Technically a Mallet is a compound articulated locomotive where high pressure steam goes to the cylinders powering the rear set of drivers first, which then exhaust into the larger low pressure cylinders powering the front set of drivers. It's the name of a french fellow who invented the design. The Allegheny is a simple articulated, IE: all of its cylinders are high pressure. That's part of why it's able to generate such phenomenal horsepower (highest of any articulated locomotive). Thanks for the correction. Every Mallet I had seen was articulated, so I falsely assumed that every articulated was a Mallet. Apparently some railroaders were confused at first, according to Wikipedia: "The Chesapeake & Ohio road introduced 25 simple (non-compound expansion) 2-8-8-2 locomotives in 1924 and 20 more in 1926. Although the simple expansion concept diverged from Mallet's original patent, the locomotives were clearly a continuation of the concept and were conveniently still referred to as 'Mallet' locomotives." bytebark posted:Want to run a train down the steepest mainline rail grade in North America? Well, here's a video which will tell you how to do just that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IABM8UPplY&feature=share "Saluda is one of the steepest mainline grades in the United States, with grades over five percent sections." No, it is the steepest mainline grade, averaging 4.7%, with parts at 5.1%. It seems strange that NS wouldn't know that! I have always been amused at the fact that it has runaway train cutout spurs, much like roads on steep grades sometimes have runaway truck ramps. Imagine a train hitting one of those! Here is a picture of the line and a cutout:  Edit: I forgot to mention: Great film! It's interesting seeing how the drivers work grades like that. And here is an article from Trains on the grade: Saluda: Where You either Run the Train or the Train Runs You! Brother Jonathan fucked around with this message at 11:28 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 11:11
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How would they even switch onto a cutout like that? I can't imagine they would be yelling at a guy in the control room to flip the switch and launch them into a tree. The rails look old/neglected enough that they'd be all-mechanical switches anyway when they were new. Would they put a guy out there waiting for a runaway train all day long?
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Nov 20, 2012 19:04
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In the video, they talk about a timer circuit. If the train doesn't make it from point A to point B within a minute, the tracks switch to the cutout. Also, the tracks are switched to the cutout by default.
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Nov 20, 2012 19:23
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Seat Safety Switch posted:How would they even switch onto a cutout like that? I can't imagine they would be yelling at a guy in the control room to flip the switch and launch them into a tree. If you watch the video they explained it. The switches are set to the cutout, and the speed of the train is measured over a timed section of track prior to the switch. If the speed of the train over the timed section (I think they said 8mph) is within allowable spec, the switch automatically moves to the main-line, and the signal goes green. If speed is above spec through the timed section, off to the cutout you go! ^^^^ efb 
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Nov 20, 2012 19:24
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Ah, I should have watched the video first. That makes a lot of sense. I wanna see a train hit the cutout.
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Nov 20, 2012 19:28
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Brother Jonathan posted:Edit: I forgot to mention: Great film! It's interesting seeing how the drivers work grades like that. And here is an article from Trains on the grade: Saluda: Where You either Run the Train or the Train Runs You! The line from Asheville to Old Fort really is through some absolutely stunning scenery. There is an old highway which has been converted into a walking path which somewhat follows the route taken by the railbed and it is well worth the time. There is also Andrew's Geyser which was built as a tribute to the people who died building the line there: they dammed a stream near the top of the mountain and ran a two mile long iron pipe to the site of the geyser, where the difference in pressure is enough to continuously supply an 80ft spray. People have been talking for a long time about getting passenger rail service re-established into Asheville but I have to imagine that given the hairy, single-track, low-speed routes into (and especially out of) the city that it just isn't worth the trouble. I've driven 176 into Saluda and it boggles my mind that they would run coal trains down that mountain. It almost seems like you could have a giant chute and just dump the coal at the top and let it roll down.
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Nov 20, 2012 23:13
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Brother Jonathan posted:A picture from the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad: My friends just did one of their murder mystery rides. I plan on getting out there for one, I also want to run up to Strasburg and spend the day there too.
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Nov 20, 2012 23:54
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I didn't know the Saluda grade was essentially abandoned.
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Nov 21, 2012 00:02
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Most of the traffic over Saluda was coal, and NS has never ruled out trains returning if demand warrants it. Rumors persist about them reactivating the line too. Who knows, maybe one of these days it'll happen.
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Nov 21, 2012 00:30
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bytebark posted:Most of the traffic over Saluda was coal, and NS has never ruled out trains returning if demand warrants it. Rumors persist about them reactivating the line too. Who knows, maybe one of these days it'll happen. Maybe. But usually rumours about a line reopening are just that. Makes me think of the line running through Cobram. Although I live over the border I signed the petition to reopen it. After the petitions disappeared suddenly a section of line was ripped up and a completely pointless street was built in its stead. Also the train station car park (which is also the bus station) was closed off and they built a skate park on it. A skate park. Crammed in tightly between the main street, a shopping center thoroughfare / street, and the remnants of the train / bus station access. Haven't heard of any fatalities... yet.
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Nov 21, 2012 11:54
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Ages back I posted an image of a railway tunnel encased in foliage. English Russia has a bunch more photos of it now EDIT - Okay, I am officially going senile now. I just checked my other posts in the thread and exactly one year and ten days ago posted a link to these same images but at another site. What the hell, brain? You're supposed to stop me from doing this kind of poo poo. Megillah Gorilla fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Nov 27, 2012 |
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Nov 27, 2012 16:22
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Want to hear something funny? A group of conductors I know all have their turns together so that they will all be home to play blops2.
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Nov 27, 2012 20:59
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B4Ctom1 posted:Want to hear something funny? A group of conductors I know all have their turns together so that they will all be home to play blops2. I have Sat/Sun off working days I finally got off that horrible horrible local from hell.
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Nov 28, 2012 01:06
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idiot http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9c9_1354064708
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Nov 28, 2012 12:10
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If people pull that kind of stunt in America, are you required to stop and treat the incident like you ran them over?
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Nov 28, 2012 16:42
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Least destructive train crash in history: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=740_1354359538
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Dec 1, 2012 16:26
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http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c71_1354293942
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Dec 1, 2012 20:05
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