Model railroaders mostly all design fantasy layouts. On SubChat, fantasy layouts reach 1:1 scale as evary foamer in sight has a better route for a subway line.
This Fantasy however takes a look at the locomotives. On deck is the issue of safety in the face of crew exhaustion. It postulates that the locomotive operates automatically from a central computer and requires no crew whatsoever. How hard is that. Many transit lines are automated, some airport connectors are crew less. NYCT’s Canarsie line has been automated, albeit with full crews on board.
The signals on the big routes that I am concerned about already display the speed and other information that the train needs, the computer knows where and when the train must stop. What is the use of a crew anyway.
Well the LION is not a union buster, and LION thinks that there should be a crew on board all of these trains, but is it really necessary for the engineer to sit in the driver’s seat and watch the tracks mile after sleepy mile? The LION thinks not.
The LION envisions a locomotive arranged more like the bridge of a ship rather than of an old steam hogger sitting on a wooden box with his head out the window. That model could have been tossed out the window years ago.
The crew stands at the front windscreen like the captain on the bridge of a ship. When the signals clear, and his train is ready for departure, he simply opens the throttle and watches the train as it leaves the terminal. Once under way, he and the conductor can sit at a table in the rear of the cab. They can play cards, read books, surf the internet, or watch TV. The train is on auto-pilot, and nobody needs to look out the front window to see what the signals really are. Besides, they are repeated in the cab anyway, nice and bright and visible to both conductor and engineer alike.
The crew is on board to take care of the paper work, which is also on the computer anyway, and to assure that the equipment continues to run correctly.
In one of two banned sleep disorder threads, I posted the dizzying vision of the FRA for the digital / electronic tracking, automation, and management of almost everything to do with railroading. Lots of people make money dreaming up and selling these new outside-the-box ideas, and they ply the FRA in hopes of getting their ideas mandated, so they must be purchased by the railroads. And the railroads have the deep pockets it takes to make it all worthwhile. It is like hitting the jackpot.
I’m as much of a computer geek as anyone, but I kinda like the feel of my hand on the throttle and the brake, relying on my knowledge of the profile to get me where I’m going…
What happens when the computerized train runs over the trespasser that is grooving to the tunes or committing suicide or when a air hose comes uncoupled 8000 feet from the unoccupied engines and there is no one to change it and where the train comes to a stop cannot be accessed by off track means.
I don’t see the automation / remote control of trains as being any big deal of a technical challenge. I think the big problem would be making it pay to do it. It would require enormous cost. You might eliminate the engineer and conductor jobs. However, if you take the engineer off the engine, it will either require him to be watching the track and running the train from the yard office, or it will require an awful lot of complex computerization and sensors. And an awful lot could malfunction with all that complexity. Eliminating the on-board crew would then pose a new requirement for people to follow the train in trucks to take care of any problems such as replacing air hoses or knuckles.
Obviously they would only be used on major trunks where ALL trains would be under the control of the computer OR the section of track that a local train or MOW is working is blocked at both ends.
I did not remove the crew, although a friend, a BNSF conductor, is full of this sort of talk, claiming that there would be no crew at all. Probly a case of the RR trying to psyche out the union.
The train could be manned with an “attendant” ow does NOT operate the locomotive, but can make repairs or press the emergency stop. Any issue requiring an operating crew would have them dispatched by helicopter.