Train Time is Anytime!!

[wolfie]

This is a difficult subject for me ...I'm extremely paranoid these days of trains coming at me on the tracks. This is due to to events in life....once many years ago when I still lived in California I was on a bus headed to work when we stopped on some tracks with a stalled car in front of us. Guess what, a train was coming. The driver told all of us to get off the bus now and when we got far enough away I turned around just in time to see the bus hit and turned into a horseshoe on impact.

When you say "stalled car", do you mean the car had some problem that kept it from moving (usual meaning), and the space in front of it was clear, or was it merely one of many cars in a backlog, with other cars in front of it?

If the former, I'm surprised the bus driver acted as he did - would have been MUCH faster to clear the tracks by pushing the stalled car using the bus than it would be to get people off - and there would be far less damage involved (minor front end damage to bus, moderate rear end damage to car, none to train, vs. totalled bus, damaged front end of train, and car that caused the problem in the first place undamaged).

[mikoyan29]

Trains are nothing to be trifled with. I have a healthy respect for a vehicle that will turn my vehicle to scrap metal in a heart beat.

That Nickel Plate train looks pretty cool...wish some of those would come up to my neck of the woods.

[sevendaysky]

I haven't told this story here. My grandmother had 9 children (my mother was #7, I think) and they lived in South Dakota at the time. They only had one car, so that makes 10 or 11 people crammed in one car (it's unclear whether my grandfather was in the car that day) ranging from teenager to a toddler. As the car comes to a train crossing, it stalls, and they can't get it to start. Right about then, a train comes into view. This was... 50+ years ago, so you know they're not going 10 mph through town - and this might not even have been IN a town per se, either.

So. 10/11 people trying to get out of a crammed car in a hurry. All but one made it - my youngest aunt, the toddler. Train hits the car. My aunt was recovered alive out of the wreckage. She was in surgery for hours. The final result was that she lost several fingers off each hand and suffered brain damage plus had more or less a permanent tracheotomy. Now as an adult she lives on her own, kind of, but with a lot of supervisory care (she can't have a bank account without a trustee because people have tried to scam money from her before) - has to talk by pressing the stump of a thumb to her throat to talk, etc. Nice woman, though - my godmother. I don't know what SHE thinks of the whole thing, since I never got up the courage to ask her.

Point being, DO NOT STOP ON THE GORRAM TRACKS. My grandmother still feels guilty about it to this day, even though it was a mechanical failure in the car, not the operator.

[Andara Bledin]

once many years ago when I still lived in California I was on a bus headed to work when we stopped on some tracks with a stalled car in front of us.

The driver was an idiot for letting himself get into that position (always have your exit open before entering), but at least he had the presence of mind to clear the bus before it got worse.

I always cede right of way to anything that has at least half again the mass I do. Which means that even if that cyclist is the same weight I am, his speed likely gives him enough greater mass (conservation of energy ) so he still gets the right of way, no matter whose it really is.

^-.-^

[telecom_goddess]

When you say "stalled car", do you mean the car had some problem that kept it from moving (usual meaning), and the space in front of it was clear, or was it merely one of many cars in a backlog, with other cars in front of it?

to be honest I don't recall now if there was anyone else ahead of that car or not .....this was about 28 or 29 years ago now. Geeze I feel old

[protege]

Trains are nothing to be trifled with. I have a healthy respect for a vehicle that will turn my vehicle to scrap metal in a heart beat.

Yep, most people have no idea just how *big* locomotives and train cars are...unless they're standing right next to them. Such large vehicles can easily flatten even the largest of trucks. There's no way that a freight can stop on a dime--they can take up to a mile or more to stop

That Nickel Plate train looks pretty cool...wish some of those would come up to my neck of the woods.

I got very lucky to see that. Norfolk Southern has been busy celebrating their 30th anniversary. To commemorate all of the components of the system, NS painted a dozen or so locomotives in various "Heritage" paint schemes, one of which (the NKP one) was paired with the 765 that weekend. So far, I've only seen two of those units--the NKP and the Wabash one.

[mikoyan29]

I got very lucky to see that. Norfolk Southern has been busy celebrating their 30th anniversary. To commemorate all of the components of the system, NS painted a dozen or so locomotives in various "Heritage" paint schemes, one of which (the NKP one) was paired with the 765 that weekend. So far, I've only seen two of those units--the NKP and the Wabash one.

Well I hope the steam ones end up in a museum or something. Would be cool.

Yeah, I have Norfolk Southern on my facebook page. They ahve been getting some awesome pictures.

[mhkohne]

do people really win that game outside of movies?

i mean seriously the only game stupider than "beat the train" is Russian roulette.

Although... i guess "đi đi mau" works for both in a sick way....

Not so much - if I understand correctly, SEPTA had two different incidents last tuesday, including one near where I work. I watch stupid bozos walk under the barriers all the time, and I'm just waiting for the day when I end up with some moron splattered on my shoes as I'm trying to go to lunch.

[eltf177]

Nobody seems to remember. Back in the late 70's we had one of these, some clown in a small pickup decided to duck around the dropped gates to beat the train. He didn't, it hit him head-on. The truck was pushed/dragged for some distance and was completely cubed, what was left of the body couldn't even be removed. A tire was found about 1000 yards (900m) down the tracks! For more than a decade in the northern VA area this was held up as the perfect example of exactly _why_ one doesn't do this. Didn't seem to sink into some simple minds, there were at least 2 more similar accidents that I recall, one involving a car full of teens.

[mhkohne]

Nobody seems to remember. Back in the late 70's we had one of these, some clown in a small pickup decided to duck around the dropped gates to beat the train. He didn't, it hit him head-on. The truck was pushed/dragged for some distance and was completely cubed, what was left of the body couldn't even be removed. A tire was found about 1000 yards (900m) down the tracks! For more than a decade in the northern VA area this was held up as the perfect example of exactly _why_ one doesn't do this. Didn't seem to sink into some simple minds, there were at least 2 more similar accidents that I recall, one involving a car full of teens.

Yep, those trains LOOK like they are moving slowly, but it's an illusion and this class of moron is too stupid to take advice on th subject.

[protege]

Yep, those trains LOOK like they are moving slowly, but it's an illusion and this class of moron is too stupid to take advice on th subject.

I know a guy who was engineer of one of Amtrak's F40PH locomotives. He was doing the usual 79mph track speed...when a gravel truck drove around the crossing gates. Seems the driver thought that the F40 wasn't going that fast...and that he could beat it to the crossing. Sadly, he thought wrong. The truck was reduced to a pile of scrap, while the F40 lost its nose and coupler. That engine made it back to the Albany shops...but the truck was cut up on the spot. I can't remember if the driver lived, but either way, was risking your life over a 5-minute wait really worth it?

[telecom_goddess]

*snip* but either way, was risking your life over a 5-minute wait really worth it?

No it's not. Just let the damn train go by first.

[Captain Trips]

It's really basic math, using Newtonian physics.
Momentum = mv^2.
Car: m=1 ton. Stopped on tracks, v=0. Momentum= 2000lbs x 0 =0 lbs force.
Train: m=10,000 tons (estimated), v through town = 10 mph. Momentum = 20,000,000 lbs x 100 = 2 billion pounds of force.

So compare: 0<20,000,000,000. I think the train wins every time.

(Of course, I'm not converting units properly, but the proportion of 0 vs. 2 billion seems to be about right.)

(Moral? I'd rather hear horns honking behind me for a couple of minutes than never hearing those horns again.)

[Flying Grype]

I actually paid attention in physics class and then studied it at university... and then in the university town, seeing people walk across six lane streets in front of streetcars. "Nope, that one doesn't know anything about physics... nope, neither does that one..."

And I remember reading/hearing someone spewing nonsense about streetcar drivers not stopping their cars in time for people crossing the street, as if they were some kind of industrial-revolution-era machines that would just keep going with people caught in them. You moron, the driver CAN NOT STOP. It takes time and space to stop a vehicle with that much mass going that fast. If you jaywalk in front of a trolley and get flattened by it, it's not the driver's fault.

[mikoyan29]

Nobody seems to remember. Back in the late 70's we had one of these, some clown in a small pickup decided to duck around the dropped gates to beat the train. He didn't, it hit him head-on. The truck was pushed/dragged for some distance and was completely cubed, what was left of the body couldn't even be removed. A tire was found about 1000 yards (900m) down the tracks! For more than a decade in the northern VA area this was held up as the perfect example of exactly _why_ one doesn't do this. Didn't seem to sink into some simple minds, there were at least 2 more similar accidents that I recall, one involving a car full of teens.

There was an accident like that a couple years ago in my neck of the woods. Not only did the car play beat the train but it also played beat the other cars that were stopped for the crossing gate. When the reports first came out, the first thing on the mind of the news folks was to blame the crossing gates, until
Amtrak came out with the video that basically said, "Uh no...". And then a survelliance video from one of the local businesses surfaced that showed the car going around the other cars.