…Just got home from work…and just before I left I hear some people ranting on the west end of our office. So I go down to see whats up. On the IB Desk (St Louis Line), he tells me Q???03 comes to a stop signal becuase he had to talk him by. well, when he came to a stop, there was a police officer sitting at the xing waiting for him to go by. well, as soon as he cleared, he did not wait for the gates to go up and went around. While he was heading around the gates, the slack from the train had come back and hit the officers vehicle.
I think he is asking for some more slack right about now as his supervisors are asking him if he knows that it is very illegal to go around downed gates.
…Police or no police action…Going around the blinking red lights and downed gates should be a no - no for anyone. The policeman would be just as dead as any citizen doing the same thing with a signal indicating do not cross…and the police car being rammed by a train.
Well at least he didnt drive down the tracks and get hung up trying to catch a guy on a dirt bike[(-D]
He’s just dam lucky it wasnt a double track with a second train coming thru in the blind side behind the first train, all he’ll get is a talking down to, a bondo and paint job on his cruiser, and a career full of joking about it, he could have bought the farm [:O]
Ignoring the cops actions, it’s a good thing someone wasn’t hurt because of this.
I hated having to stop a freight train in an area where I knew there would be a crossing somewhere near the hind end. And when I did stop, I made absolutely sure I had the slack all bunched or stretched, whichever was necessary at the location to prevent this exact type of thing from happening. Although I prefered stretched, so the trouble-makers would not pull any pins on me.
I am a poor lurker wishing to learn more about RR’s. I can’t visualize what was the train motion that hit the vehicle. Please somebody tell what was the physics that happened?
john…the train probably came down on dynamic (so now all the cars are now being pushed up against the engines) then used just a little air to come to a complete stop. After the train stopped (he put all the air back into the cars) which means the brakes are released. When they released (the cars that were pushed up against the engine are now going to start coming back the opposite way). there is a few feet in between each car “between the slack” if you have over 100 cars, thats a lot of slack “especially auto rks”
…Ok, after the train was brought to a stop as described above…and the brake line pressurized…releasing the consist brakes…what is holding the “train” in place…Is it the engine brakes…? {Assuming the train is setting on a bit of a grade and requires some holding power}.
John: Slack is located between couplers. When couplers are connected, there is a small amount of space between them. That little bit of space on ever single coupler joint on the entire train can be a lot of slack, 50 feet or more on many trains. When it comes out, the locos don’t move (unless they’re being pushed against and the brakes aren’t on or something) but the rear end does… Remember that 50 feet of slack?
This is also why if a train should stop 1/2 way while your standing waiting at a crossing, NEVER EVER consider crawling under the cars to get across…[:O]
Police are just as clueless as anyone else when it comes to being around the railroad. We can have barriers and signs put up alerting the public that a crossing is closed and we’ll have cops driving around the barriers just like the public does. We can be flagging a crossing and cops are just as difficult to work with as everyone else becuase they can’t follow directions any better than other people.[}:)]
I couldn’t believe it but just yesterday we had a empty coal train stopped and blocking a x-ing right next to depot that I am headquartered. It had been sitting there waiting for the BN disp. to give him the light to X-over. I heard some yelling outside not knowing what went on. One of my co-workers told me that a middle school kid climbed up one of the cars and walked between the cars to get to the other side. I couldn’t believe that he did that!
One night, we unfortunately struck a car. The occupants weren’t badly hurt but the police came and the emergency squad came. The emergency squad, to my horror, parked with its rear in the foul of the paralleling main line of our major competition’s tracks. I got off the engine and went up to the investigating officer and told him the emergency squad was stopped fouling the tracks. He looked at me and in pure innocence (ignorance?) said, “Why, is a train scheduled to come soon?”.
