4 ms·

I'm similarly ignorant on all the intricacies of driving a train, but my understanding is that the coupled nature of a train vs. a rigid body make the dynamics

by dtparr 11y ago

I'm similarly ignorant on all the intricacies of driving a train, but my understanding is that the coupled nature of a train vs. a rigid body make the dynamics more difficult to deal with than you might imagine. That being said, I don't know how much that affects the difficulty of the operator at this point or whether that's all worked out in the train's control software. You can see what the engineer's station look like in the type of train discussed in the article here: http://www.eweek.com/mobile/slideshows/amtraks-new-siemens-locomotive-with-digital-controls-cruises-rails.html http://www.eweek.com/mobile/slideshows/amtraks-new-siemens-l... Looks like there is a combined throttle/braking control on the left side, then (multiple?) brakes on the right. Also FYI, maneuver isn't an error, it's the American English spelling.

jcrawfordor 11y ago
Yes, if I'm correct you are seeing the dynamic control on the left (forward for acceleration, reverse for dynamic braking) and the air brakes on the right - the big left handle is the train brake (sends the change down the brake line to the cars as well) and the smaller right handle is the locomotive-only brake (often used to get slow down the loco first so the coupler slack will get taken up and prevent bumping the passengers around or damaging equipment). The little LCD display shows some calculations to help the engineer make good braking decisions. Above the dynamic control on the left you see a small rotary lever - if I'm not mistaken this is the reverser, which simply selects between forward, neutral, and reverse. As a fun fact, this lever pops out and is used as the "key" for the train. For safety reasons, the engineer removes it when they leave the cab so that it's difficult to get it out of neutral. The big red button left of the dynamic control is the alerter acknowledge. This is the dead-man protection on locomotives and I suspect may factor into the conclusion on this investigation. When an alarm sounds, the operator has to press that button. The alarm becomes very jarring so it might have brought a confused or unconscious operator back to attention.

by dtparr 11y ago

jcrawfordor 11y ago

Yes, if I'm correct you are seeing the dynamic control on the left (forward for acceleration, reverse for dynamic braking) and the air brakes on the right - the big left handle is the train brake (sends the change down the brake line to the cars as well) and the smaller right handle is the locomotive-only brake (often used to get slow down the loco first so the coupler slack will get taken up and prevent bumping the passengers around or damaging equipment). The little LCD display shows some calculations to help the engineer make good braking decisions. Above the dynamic control on the left you see a small rotary lever - if I'm not mistaken this is the reverser, which simply selects between forward, neutral, and reverse. As a fun fact, this lever pops out and is used as the "key" for the train. For safety reasons, the engineer removes it when they leave the cab so that it's difficult to get it out of neutral. The big red button left of the dynamic control is the alerter acknowledge. This is the dead-man protection on locomotives and I suspect may factor into the conclusion on this investigation. When an alarm sounds, the operator has to press that button. The alarm becomes very jarring so it might have brought a confused or unconscious operator back to attention.