5 ms·
> There is nothing a train driver can do Not even sound a horn to help alert the kids? Start slowing the train to give the kids more time to alert and escape,
by vacri 11y ago
> There is nothing a train driver can do
Not even sound a horn to help alert the kids? Start slowing the train to give the kids more time to alert and escape, or reduce damage to the train and reduce chance of derailment in the case of the tree?
Trains don't stop on a dime, but neither do they take a mile of runway. I've been on a passenger train in the US South that had to do an emergency stop, and it stopped within it's own length.
- Symbiote 11y agoThat train wasn't going very fast. It's close to 1700m for a train travelling at 125mph (the fastest allowed with conventional signalling in Britain).
- vacri 11y agoNot every event that happens uses worst-case data. In any case, while I don't know the actual class of rail where this emergency stop happened, this wiki article[1] suggests that most mainline track in the US is class 4, which allows a max of 80mph for passenger trains. Out of curiosity, why do you mix metric and imperial in the same context? Stopping distance in metric for a speed in imperial? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_speed_limits_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_speed_limits_in_the_Unite...
- Symbiote 11y agoBritish usage is a mess, they were the units I found. I didn't really think about it. I also can no longer find the table of stopping distances I found this morning. The official rules for driving cars in Britain have the same daft combination of units: https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/559afb11ed915d1595000017/the-highway-code-typical-stopping-distances.pdf https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/559afb11e...
- gsnedders 11y agoFWIW, the British railway still uses miles and chains for measure.