On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:31:17 GMT, Jim - NN7K wrote:

They are STILL looking for such a foolproof device for run away train notification!

What's the issue, this appears not to be a huge deal?

Well, Ari-- the big deal is (Primarily in mountainous country- even
a grade of .5 degree, is considered quite steep). Now, suppose a
Maintainence of Way employees (push car, Motor Car, Hi-Railer (a
pickup equipped for rail travel) accidentally get loose- these can
be doing considerable speed- several MILES later-- worse, these
dont trip the signals, and further, the work crews have the track
from the dispatcher, so these can sneak up on workers with fatal
consequences. A similar thing happened on the old Siskiyou line,
when the powers that be were testing one of the old style of
remote controlled helpers-, going down-hill, on 5 Mile /Hour track
they called the remote to go to dynamic brakeing- but it went to
8-throttle instead (full throttle)! When they got it to control,
that train was doing 20 MPH! Had a bunch of scared people on it!
as you can see, it is not for the faint of heart! I sure wouldn't have
wanted to be anywhere near that track-- would you ??

Not a chance.

I know it looks simple, and most times it is, but it doesn't take
much for things to get out of control! Have fun -- Jim

I meant it seemed not to be, on first look, a difficult technology to
implement. For example, why not a sped sensitive device that set off an
alarm (vocal, radio, other) that could be preset "on" in situations where
these runaways are not manned?

I don't mean to downplay the potential complications but, technically,
getting an appropriate alarm system on a runaway doesn't sound like high
end technology.
--
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