Why can't people stay off the train tracks. an average train weighs 6,000 tons. stay alive. stay off the track

Question

an average train weighs 6,000 tons. stay alive. stay off the tracks. dusk

Answer 1

I wish it were so but some people seek to top themselves that way and a merciless few are so irresponsible that they like to muck about on the rail tracks and don't realise that a train means rolling death.

I still remember the public service film from the 1960s which ended with the words,

'Trespassers will be prosecuted.... and some of them can't be.'

Answer 2

Dusk-

My hats off to all of the engineers who answered your question.  

I am a member of a local railroad club called Niles Canyon Railway.  No we do not play with HO Scale or O Scale models.  We are a restoration club that operates an 11 mile strip of teack from Niles, CA to Sunol, CA.

I have been around trains all of my life, being that I am from Chico, CA along Union Pacific Main Line.

Though I have never been put in a position where these other gentlemen have, I can't imagine what they have to endure other than watch the horror unfold before their very eyes and know there is nothing they can do.

I know this when I signed onto my club to work around this equipment.  We use a four short blast signal followed by the safety bell anytime we are moving equipment around.  At this point there is no-one allowed to cross any rails ANYWHERE in the yard until the all clear is given with three long blasts.

We also use the blue flag rule when folks are working on equipment, and we use a derail on that location.  Those are only removed by the person who placed them there in the first place, or a member of that crew.

Anyhow, the common person just has no perception of how big and heavy this equipment really is.  As the other guys can tell you, (hopefully never witnessed), train yards are a real hazard.  The cars are more than willing to couple with anything in between them.  That would include you.

But I really think its due to a severe iron deficency in their brain.  To my knowledge the only known cure is a direct crainial injection via a knuckle coupler!

Then issue a Darwin Award to that person and thank them for taking themselves out of the Gene Pool!  The only bad part is the fact the engineers don't want to be involved.  Quite frankly, who can blame them!

Anyhow, to all of you guys.  Again!  My Hats Off!

Answer 3

The medical term is cranial/r****m inversion, it's a Darwinian thing.

Seriously, that is a question those of us in the cab ask ourselves daily.

Most engineers will tell you that is the most stressful part of an already stressful job.

There isnt one of us that hasnt had far too many close calls that could have been so easily prevented.

A guy recently told me, accusingly "hey! one of your trains almost hit me"

I couldnt help myself, I let him have it, I said I absolutely positively guarantee that train did not swerve or veer one inch to hit you, you knew exactly what direction it was heading.

And a few other choice words I wont repeat.

Answer 4

Hitting someone at a crossing is the most helpless feeling you can experience as a train crew.Like Bob said they have counseling now but nothing really helps the feeling that comes from a crossing fatality.It might sound cold ,but the only way i can live with it is to tell myself i was doing all i could and i didn't kill them,they killed themselves.I hit a car at a crossing once but the man jumped and ran.When the police got there they picked the man up and brought him to the head end of the train.He was irate with me screaming why didn't you stop? You saw me on the tracks.He's lucky a cop was there! At 70 mph even in emergency a train can take a mile to stop. By the time a train sees you it's too late to stop. Please be careful folks.We rails have enough trouble geting proper rest without having nightmares from grinding a car into a ball of scrap metal.It only takes a couple of minutes for a train to pass.Why risk death to try to beat a train? There are no ties,the train always wins.

Bob is your email working?Ive sent you a couple of emails and was wondering if you got them.

Answer 5

That is the million dollar question.

A significant portion of these 100% preventable "accidents" is from sheer stupidity.  The rest are from ignorance.

Of course people who visit here regularly are well aware of the danger, such as yourself.  But, a lot of the knowledge we take for granted is just not very wide spread.

A perfect example, several years ago I was conducting "cab tours" that were offered in an "open house" type setting in the yard at Dunsmuir, Ca.  The attendees were grade school children with several chapperones.

A group of kids with their techer entered the cab.  The first words out of the teacher's mouth were, "Well.  That answers the question. We wanted to know if there was a steering wheel in here."

This was at a time and place where at least 25% or more of the population in this smaller community worked for the railroad!

There is no cure for stupidity, and rightly so.  That is just nature's way of thinnin' the herd.  But railroad safety is something that should be a part of the curriculum in all grade, middle and high schools.

Operation Lifesaver is a terrific organization but, under funded and relying primarily upon volunteers to operate, the program should be expanded.

Statistically, if hiring out today and working for 30 years, a person will experience three fatalities.  It is just the luck of the draw.  I was lucky.  I never had a fatalitiy even though I was on trains that hit two pick-up trucks, a station wagon and a pedestrian.  A man right behind me on the seniority roster killed eight teenagers in one shot, riding in a pleasure van, celebrating after that afternoon's graduation excercises.  Another I know killed a man in a wheel-chair, the wheels of which got caught in the "flange-way" while trying to cross the tracks at a grade crossing.

I know many others, but these two examples demonstrate how tragically heartbreaking these events can be.

The people who were on the head end of those trains were changed forever.

These days, counselling is available for employees that have been involved in a fatality, at least on some railroads.  But, there is no amount of counselling that can erase the experience or the images forever seered into the psyche.

We are helpless.  It falls upon individuals to assume responsibility for their own safety.  There are no words to describe the experience in all its true horror.  I like to think that the exchanges here in the rail forum have helped to save lives, which is why I hammer away on it, ad nauseum.

I never really made a trip anywhere, where I didn't see at least one idiot go around some crossing gates.  Adding in other events, if all the near misses I have experienced had turned into a fatalitiy, the death toll for myself alone would be in the thousands.

Speak up.  We assume all are aware of the dangers we have come to know.  That can be a fatal mistake.

But, it is all very simple.  There is only one way to cross ANY railroad track safely, whether they have crossing protection or not.  When practical, STOP, actually look (a glance is not sufficient), and turn off the music for a moment, roll down the window and listen for an oncoming rain.  If stopping at a crossing to let a train pass, stop back as far as practical.  Anything can fall off of or out of a freight car.  Stop to close and you could have several tons of something in your lap.

Do otherwise and you may wind up kissing 2 inches of boiler plate coming at you at 40 mph with 10,000 tons of inertia behind it.

Put another way; "We have to stop meeting like this..."