A few days ago, I recieved my school’s monthly newspaper. On the front page was a small column that read:
Worst Case Scenario
How To:
Stop a Runaway Passenger Train
Locate the emergency brake.
Pull handle.
If The Brake Does Not Work
Call for help.
Make your way to the front of the train
Enter the locomotive.
Open all emergency valves located in the engine room on or near the dash (at the left side of the cab).
Move all levers and handles forward, toward the windshield.
If the train is still not slowing down, enter the engine room, which will be behind to your right.
Taken from the Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide: Travel
In my opinion, common sense would say that if you go to the front of a runaway train, you are more likely to die. Plus with all of the different configurations of locomotive cabs, some of these tips could do just the opposite of what they’re intended for. One exampl
The 1 and 2 are OK. The next steps should be to repeat for each car in the train! After that, start tieing down the hand brakes.
If none of that slows the train, then assume crash positions (see Airplane - the movie)
Pushing the brake and away from you for stopping is the general rule. You’d likely get the locomotive independent brake set, but getting the dynamic brake going is going to depend on the control stand setup.
A train can run away even if the brake don’t fail. If the speed on a grade gets too great, the brakes can’t disappate the energy as fast as the train gains energy from descending.
The whole “enter the locomotive” thing is a little gray, too.
Are we talking a hood, cowl, or cab? Not sure I’d want passengers trying to climb onto our RS-2 from the passenger consist at “runaway” speeds. Not sure I’d want to do that.
Besides, it’s not likely the passengers would be totally “alone” on a passenger train - you can bet the crew is already pulling valves and setting hand brakes, if that’s what it will take to stop the train.
tell all the passengers to go to an open door and start dragging their feet
throw out the anchor
grab your camera
Seriously, the procedures you mention would only make a difference if the engine crew was somehow incapacitated. Otherwise, they would have done all of the procedures you mentioned (and then some). However, assuming for argument’s sake that the crew was unable to act, then doing what you proposed would stop the train (if it is stoppable).
All of this depends, too, on the instruction reader’s orientation to the problem, his/her personality, character, experience…many variables. At the most basic level, some people are genuinely altruistic and would do everything indicated, including moving forward where the risk to the person was clearly the greatest. Others with less, shall we cay “mettle”, would move rearward in an attempt to gain personal safety and to disengage themselves in any way possible.
I suspect the heavy movement would be aft. Good luck to buddy trying to get forward.
I think somebody’s been watching too many movies. They forgot the part about moving toward the locomotive along the outside of the passenger cars.
I don’t see anything productive at all about this publication. As someone says, how do you know the train’s running away? Pulling the emergency cord just because one thinks the train’s traveling too fast is a recipe for disaster. Don’t do it unless you know that everyone in the crew (both locomotive and train) has been incapacitated.
Think about this…where would you rather be…in a 440,000lb (give or take a few thousand) locomotive designed to be banged around some, or a light weight passenger car that might end up with another car telescoping into it in the event of a crash?
I noticed the instructions failed to mention the emergency fuel cut off switch, which in most passenger locommotives is located on the rear cab wall as well as one on the outer side sill.
As Crandell mentioned, most folks would take a reactive stance and move away from the headend…very few, if any, a proactive stance, and try and solve the problem.
I may just be ignorant, but seriously, how many fatal runaway passenger accident’s are there? I haven’t hered of that many. Maby there are though. Most fatal acciden’s occur with either a defective rail etc. or a collision with another train that i’ve hered of. I also agree with Larry, I wouldn’t want to try and climb over that V-12 or 16, I can’t remember what’s in a P42, to get to the cab! Is that evan possable to do that? Manafold would grill my legs! SSSSSSSSSSSSS[xx(]
…"Put in your water and shovel in your coal
Put your head out the window watch them drivers roll
I’ll run her till she leaves the rail
Cause I’m eight hour late with that western mail
He looked at his watch and his watch was slow
He looked at the water and the water was low
He turned to the Fireman and he said we’re going to reach Frisco
but we’ll all be dead
Casey Jones! going to reach Frisco Casey Jones but we’ll all be dead Casey Jones going to reach Frisco we’re going to reach Frisco but we’ll all be dead.
Casey pulled up that Reno hill
he tooted for the crossing with a awful shrill
The switchman knew by the engines moan
That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones
He pulled up with-in two miles of the place
number four stared him right in the face
He turned to the Fireman said Boy you’d better jump
cause there’s two Locomotives thats a going to bump
Casey Jones! two locomotives Casey Jones thats a going to bump Casey Jones two locomotives there’s two locomotives thats a going to bump."…
#1: Try the air brakes in all the cars. This will ensure that a closed angle cock isn’t the problem (ala PRR’s Congressional Limited).
#2: Try the dynamic brake. This may add enough braking force to bring the train under control with regular brakes that are functioning but overloaded.
#3: Try the hand brakes. Pretty much self evident, I think.
#4: (for conductors): Throw the engineer from the cab in front of the train.
#5: (for engineers): Throw the conductor from the cab in front of the train.
(Note: Neither #4 nor #5 will do much to retard forward movement but, if you’ve tried #'s 1-3 already, it may be your last chance to finally do it and maybe get away with it. On that note…)
#6: Toss any unnecessary or useless items (tools, grips, rulebooks, trainees or assistant trainmasters) from the cab to lighten the load. This probably won’t help much, either, but it will feel good. Also, the wreck crew will appreciate having that much less to pick up.
Well if it was me I would turn on richard pryor and gene wilder and silver streak and see what they do. after all most of the statements. listed is from that movie. I just love the ending when they are screaming into chicago in a yard track that is not even safe at 10 mph doinf 50mph and stays on the rails and didnt even hit another car. Must have been working in a NS yard with a NS saftey record .
That movie, to me, was about the least realistic one that I ever saw. In addition to other silly things, how could they uncouple the cars when the slack was all stretched out? Was there a moment when the momentum of the cars was greater than that of the engine and the slack did run in?
Also, the engine is shown going into what seems to be the old waiting room in Chicago Union–across the street from the concourse.
Never mind that unless the air was shut off to the train (which I don’t recall having happened, but I might have missed it), when the train parted it would have put the entire train in emergency - the rear cars would never have just coasted into the station…
But like you say, there was a lot of license taken with regard to how trains really operate…
Johnny, that was the C&NW station that the Silver Streak headed into (trust me on that one–I was on the point headed in dozens of times before it was rebuilt). And when they hit the bumping post, they kept rolling clear to Toronto!