"I'm getting tired of killing people" Topic

A few days ago: link

Last night: link

Not me either time but rather the crew in front of me last night. When will these people learn?

Shame. Hope the crews don't take it to hard. I'm sure they did what they could, but yea people need to learn.

Take it from a former NYCTA Motorman/Train Operator who has been there…

You don't get "over" it quickly (and if you say you do, you're either a sociopath or a liar. Period)

Sad that some folks think (if they do at all) that it's always a quick end.

Charlie

There used to be laws about trespassing on the rail road lands that had BIG fines that were in place to teach people to stay away from the tracks. But the powers that be forgot why the laws were there and removed them, so now we get more people hit my trains.

After working for 33 years for the railroad seeing and hearing of these types of incidents by both employees and civilians I still shake my head and wonder what was going through their heads at the time. It's a tragedy for the crew and the families. I feel especially for the crew because there is nothing they can do. Stupid waste.

Terry

Perhaps its off topic but…

When did sticking a camera in the face of parents who just lost their kid begin to be regarded as journalism?

It's what the networks did when the Challenger blew up.

carne68 I've been asking that question for year, before the Challenge disaster I recall.

"Tell me how you feel."
" ing devastated, do you suppose you could've worked that one out for yourself?"

I think Don Henley summed up best from these two stanzas from the song Dirty Laundry:

We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
It's interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
Running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry

What a pity and awfully hard on the engineers too.

One of the articles says "the train creates a vacuum, we were told, and it sucks you in"

Grisly to ask, but is that correct? How does that happen?
--
Tim

People assume that a train will brake like a car when it sees them – it can't, so the last second run in and snatch that might work with a car bearing down on you will get you killed with a train of any size.

If anything, there will be a bow wave of air pressure at the front of a train that will push you away as it comes toward you (some element of pull under the cars once the front (the loco in this case) is past, but to be significant, the train needs to be travelling at a decent rate (60mph plus (ish)); in the UK most stations have a line set back 6-10 feet from the platform edge to be behind when through trains run through – it's explained to the public mostly because of the "vacuum effect" which is easy to grasp but the main reason is not explained because it would freak a lot of people out. In high humidity conditions (fog, rain, whatever – it's the UK so this happens a lot) you will encounter some earth leakage effects from the overhead electrification when there is a current draw in the section which is a polite way of saying you've got a 25KV potential running down through you at that point.

But it's also a damn good idea to be well back from a moving train, even if it's stopping.

OK its not a vacuum effect at all, but the presser wave of displaced air hits a person and their reflex is to lean into it to stop from falling over and then the presser stops as the front of the train passes them and the person falls into the train. This also happens with cars trucks and other fast moving things.

It isn't a vacuum effect but rather disorientation caused by a fast moving wall of metal that screws with peoples' balance. Essentially they lean into the side of a passing train. Even so it was a light power move of 5 locomotives at 40 mph, not enough to be an issue.

What is strange to me is that the people who cross in front of a train or play chicken on the tracks would NEVER do it on the freeway in front of a large truck. On any given night I may have a loaded grain train of 106 cars, 15,000+ tons, 8,000 feet long with 3 locomotives doing 50 mph. Put in context, it is like trying to stop the Prinz Eugen. It doesn't stop on a dime.

or even on a town without planning.

Is the general population just too isolated from 'how trains work'? Operation Lifesaver can only do so much to educate folks about the dangers faced by a moving train.

I enjoy watching the freights roll by, but you've got to respect that rolling mass of momentum.

I'm a signalman in the UK and it does happen with depressing regularity. One of my first days on the railway was spent out with my Signalling Inspector (a former Army medic who had served in the Suez invasion), helping the track gang to pick up bits of a bloke who 'rugby-tackled' a train (he literally dived in front at the last second, giving the driver no chance to react).

Last year I had to take a call from a driver who was crying. He'd just hit a man who just stood in the tracks and faced him down. The thing that stuck in his mind was the sight of the man's trainers bouncing down the tracks in front of the train.

Worst of the lot however, wasn't a suicide, but was a two year-old boy who was just sitting, playing between the rails… The drivers would see his mum, standing staring at them as they went past for years after that.

I suppose it's impossible to get into the mind of a suicidal person, but WHAT on Earth is it that convinces them that Death by Train is the way to go?! Short of throwing yourself into the lion pit at London Zoo, I can't think of a worse way to go out. It's also difficult to feel sympathy for someone who thought that they'd try to destroy a train driver's mental health on their way out.

One of the most utterly stupid things I've ever seen was a traveller/hippy/crusty juggler with a three year-old lad (who, it turned out, wasn't even his child), who sat with the lad and encouraged him to PLACE HIS HEAD ON THE RAIL, to 'listen for trains'. I had to put the signals back to danger, forcing a train to make an emergency stop. When the Transport Police caught up with him and the child's parents, they all laughed it off and couldn't understand what the fuss was all about.

And don't get me started on level crossing misuse. We once even had a loaded SCHOOL BUS dodging the barriers to beat the train…

Coming back to my early experience: The boys on the track, out of necessity, had to have a black sense of humour to deal with it (much like members of the emergency services do, for the same reasons). One of the new lads was turning green at the blood & guts, when my Inspector held up a shoe… containing a human foot… The toecap was ripped open and you could see the toes sticking out… As the lad stood there, horrified, my Inspector wiggled the toes in turn, saying "This little piggy went to market…"

Aargh!

I also work for the railroad. We never get over seeing and hearing about people getting hit by a locomotive. Mike Adams Machinist U.P.R.R.