A question directed to those of you what often have your hand on the throttle of a locomotive:
After a long period of train operation and you are then driving the family sedan (either on the way home or possibly out on an automobile highway on vacation) do you forget that, unlike operating a locomotive on rails, you need to steer the car?
Do you find yourself reaching for the Alerter Cancel button periodically when you are driving a car?
Hmm… Now that’s an interesting question. [tup]
Well, I’m not a locomotive engineer, but at times I find myself reaching for the non-existent clutch pedal in my automatic transmission equipped car… Does that count? [%-)]
The real weirdness happens when driving a hi-rail truck for the first time. After the tires are positioned on a highway crossing parallel to the rails, the hi-rail wheels are locked down to the tracks, and the steering wheel is secured for straight-away movement, the fun begins.
Upon encountering the first spot where a tangent track transitions into a curve, the desire to turn the steering wheel into the curve has to be vigorously suppressed. Believe me, it’s a weird feeling not touching the steering wheel and knowing that the hi-rail wheels are doing the navigating. It really does take some getting used to.
Having grown up in a small railroad town…the common story about early engineers that bought those new fangled contraptions…the automobile, was the some of them, once out of town, would expect the vehicle to steer it self as they leaned into the turns, just like they did on their locomotives…with what we now know at the expected outcome. Whether it was true or just a ‘old wives tale’ is really open to question.
What I wonder is whether locomotive engineers - as a result of having learned to pay attention to the train’s dynamics, knowing the operating rules and signals and the ‘safety first’ mentality, and to think ahead, etc. - as a ‘class’ are safer drivers than the motoring public in general. Or, maybe not - ‘hot dogs’ are still ‘hot dogs’, whether on the road or on the rails. Also, there’s hardly any need for peripeheral vision or ‘defensive driving’ on the rails - not much to do and no evasive action to be taken when a kid dashes across the track, or a car pops out of nowhere and ‘runs the signal’ at an intersection/ grade crossing - so those skills may not be developed any better in engineers than the rest of us. Just wondering, that’s all . . . [%-)]
I think loco engineers are simply better developed safer drivers, much like truckers. They take it more seriously than much of the public, and safety is more important to them as a whole.
Well, I’ve never driven an engine, but I spent a whole week at a remote Guest Ranch (accessible only by train) and riding horses daily.
When I got off the train a week later and drove the car back to the highway, I pulled back on the steering wheel to slow down before I remembered the foot did that.
Art
No, not at all. However, I am perhaps much more aware of speed limits and other situations “where the speed of my vehicle may need to be reduced, prepared to stop short of cars, obstructions, or switches not properly lined”. I do find that I think further ahead and ‘anticipate’ better than other (non-rail) drivers that I have been with.
No (although I sometimes think that an alerter would be a good optional safety feature on autos). Although I do find that I sometimes want to sound a 15L as I approach an intersection with cross-traffic.
I’d like to think that applies to me. I drove from Kenosha to Chicago or Milwaukee for the railroad for 20 years without an accident or speeding ticket (I started on the railroad when I was 19). Indeed, I have yet to have either experience, even after 40 years of driving.
A very little bit of locomotive experience has influenced my driving with a few mannerisms. Mainly, coming to a full stop a car-length before the garage door or parking slot, and then creeping slowly into it, instead of just zooming right in; and slowing way down - to like 10 MPH - so as to be able to stop in half the visible distance in congested areas, such as the parking lot at work. Also, not following too closely; approaching traffic signals prepared for them to ‘drop’/ change to a more restrictive aspect; and of course, treating an ‘out’ or unfamiliar traffic signal as displaying the most restrictive indication = ‘Stop’.
Zardoz had some great comments which reminded me of my Dad.
He was never an engineer, but from as far back as I can remember until my sister was old enough to start taking driving lessons, he always referred to traffic lights as boards. Red boards or green boards.
The other expression he liked to use, is when we were planning any sort of car trip, shopping, rides to school, etc., and he was telling us the time we had to leave, it was always “we’re supplied for 7:45”, etc.
My sister never had the station experience so sometimes my Dad would tease her by saying something like “nought” when repeating a zero in a phone number or “nil” to mean nothing is there.
I am enjoying this but I better stop here.
Bruce
I just cruise through yellow lights, and prepare to stop at the next one.
[:-^]
Now, think of this in reverse. You are driving down the highway in your hirail and forget to steer. DUH![:)]
Being a retired aircraft mechanic I know that works best with airplanes just before landing. The goal is to get the airplane to stop flying just as it meets the runway.
If you can stop the train from moving just as you are about to hit the car you’ve got it made.
I’ve never tried to hit an alerter or anything else while driving. The only thing I will confess to is saying “over” in telephone conversations, before realizing I was on the phone. I’ve had other guys tell me they’ve said “over” when placing orders at drive-thru restaurants.
As for referring to traffic signals as anything other than what they are, I’ve only heard that done in a joking manner, not because someone was mixed-up.
HEE HEE HEE! I am going to have to try that at the drive through! See if I can get kid on the other end to do the same! Have to emphasize the “OvER” (for those of you familiar with the Brit-Com, “As Time Goes By” will know what I mean when I refer to the way “Mrs. Bales” said it when using a walkie-talkie… or as “Foggie” did when he was using the military surplus radios in “Last of the Summer Wine”).
Thanks… OvER!
A highly entertaining thread.
I have been a victim of the ‘over’ syndrome: it happens to many radio hams. [;)]
One issue encountered this side of the Atlantic “is which side of the road should I be on?” In the UK we drive on the left hand side of the road but after a period driving in other countries of Europe, where it is pretty well all right hand side of the road, can cause confusion on returning to the UK. Europeans can be even more confused when in the UK. [oops]
I was once told that railroad engineers do not slow down to pass through tunnels whereas many motorists do. [X-)]
Although I’m not an engineer, I do find myself thinking in such a manner at times, like letting gravity do the work of slowing me down on a hill instead of hitting the brakes and planning further ahead than one might deem necessary for normal driving. Of course, I also remember some of the “Smith Method” for defensive driving, which was very much the same thing.
One of our engineers once commented that upon getting back into his car he had to remember that there was no tonnage behind him.
Start with #2, that will Always happen, unfortunately many people think that means to ‘floor it’…
#2 there are vehicle code sections requiring (what the State deems as) proper spacing
#2 Vehicle code says Blinking Red Lights and Dark Signals are to be treated as if a Stop Sign (Stop and Proceed)
so there is that commonality with the RR
I’ve been guilty of the “over” thing on the fire radio system. Confuses the daylights out of the dispatchers.