I didn’t know a train COULD pass a red without the brakes coming on.
I’m calling BS on the concept that he ‘missed’ a red light while text messaging.
First off, it’s not like the red lights at your everyday intersection.
It’s a series of red lights alongside the track.
SECOND, and most important, it’s not like the engineer turns the steering wheel to go off on a siding, while waiting for the other car to pass.
There are ‘switches’ in the tracks that reroute the train onto the siding. The only way you can get back on the main track is that the switches on that end change. This usually only happens after the other train passes, elsewise it would come head on at your on the siding.
Someone had to monkey with the lights and track switches for this to happen.
“I didn’t know a train COULD pass a red without the brakes coming on.”
Of course they can - just like you can go through a stop light with the car.
Even in cab-signalled territory where I work (Northeast Corridor), with continuous cab signals that indicate block occupancy, trains can _still_ pass Stop Signals, albeit at speeds of 15-20mph. The cab signal system can slow you down, but it WON’T _stop_ you.
The only exception that I know of in the United States is that portion of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor in which the “ACSES” system is in place. There, a train will be forced to stop before passing a Stop Signal.
In the overwhelming majority of track in the U.S., there is no speed enforcement system at all. Signals are in place that indicate the occupancy of blocks ahead, but it is up to the engineman to live up to what they indicate.
Before anyone reading this posting comes out with the remark that “if that’s the case, the government should require that safety systems be installed everywhere”, you should realize the cost of doing this would be billions of dollars. Ain’t gonna happen any time soon....
- John