CHICAGO TRAIN CRASH!

WBBM-AM Radio | 04-23-02 | GRRRRR

[GRRRRR]

Just reported on radio that an AMTRACK PASSENGER TRAIN has slammed into a track repair/support truck on the tracks at the Dundee Road (RTE 68) crossing.

Unknown injuries etc. at this time...monitoring...

GRRRRRRRRR

[supercat]

Haven't of that British emergency set up before, sounds like a trip wire?

Each semaphore has, in addition to the visible indicators, a "trainstop" which is extended underneath the track when the signal is red. On the underside of the train is a lever which, when hit, engages the emergency break. One property of the old trainstops which probably didn't make them very popular with motormen was that they were a real pain in the tusch to reset; I don't know if newer ones are better in that regard.

Actually, one idea which was considered was to have trainstops that were speed-sensitive: if the next train was, e.g., 500 feet ahead, the trainstop would trip if the train was travelling too fast to stop safely within that distance but allow it to pass otherwise. This system was extremely unpopular with motormen since while it would, in best case, allow a train to slow down rather than stopping if the train in front was pulling out of a station, the time spent having to reset the trainstops when the motorman was travelling a bit too fast (in a cab with no speedo!) was greater than the time saved by not stopping when the motormen did things right.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Interesting. With all the debris that can be found in the tracks over here, I dunno if it would work in the US, however. Plus we are always running over animals, so thatlever underneath the train would likely be struck by debris far more often than an actual event.

Thanks for explaining that system, I'll have to look it up sometime.