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The reason he got off was the train was about to blow through an improperly configured switch. He jumped off at the last minute to flip the switch mere seconds
by jandrese 5y ago
The reason he got off was the train was about to blow through an improperly configured switch. He jumped off at the last minute to flip the switch mere seconds before the train made it there.
As people have mentioned with modern systems there is rarely one single point of failure. It usually requires the failure of multiple systems in close succession.
In this case the rails were slick with rain, the switch was erroneously in the wrong configuration, the engineer misconfigured his locomotive in haste, the engineer dismounted a moving the locomotive against policy, the engineer failed to board the locomotive due to the wet handholds being slick as well as the train picking up too much speed, and only then did they have the full on runaway train.
Changing any one of the above variables and there is no incident.
- superjan 5y agoNow the question is: why did he think it was acceptable to disembark? The report says this was an experienced engineer with a clean record. If it had worked, he probably expected he would get away with it. That’s the real problem.
- mannykannot 5y agoHis expectation that he would be successful may have rested on several misapprehensions: He thought he had engaged dynamic braking and thought it would be effective at that speed. On account of the first issue, he did not realize that increasing the engine output would cause the train to accelerate (as opposed to merely energize the field windings, as it would with dynamic braking properly selected.) In addition, "the engineer seemed to believe, in error, that an automatic brake application would improve braking power on single locomotive with the independent brake fully applied" (from the conclusions of the report.) Plus he was acting in haste, and therefore not thinking it through.
- jandrese 5y agoHe has the choice of sticking to policy but having an accident, or ignoring the policy to avert the accident, only to cause a different accident later due to some additional factors.
- joncrane 5y agoOnly the eventual outcome of this was not an accident. Another train caught up with this runaway train, coupled to it, attached the air brake hoses, and applied the brakes. This slowed the train to a crawl. Then an engineer was able to jump aboard and cut the power. The only damage was the burned out brakes on the locomotive.