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How does a human conductor stop a train from hitting a deer? Do they spot it from 3 miles away? The THSR I rode solved the wildlife problems with a big windsh
by mulmen 1y ago
How does a human conductor stop a train from hitting a deer? Do they spot it from 3 miles away?
The THSR I rode solved the wildlife problems with a big windshield wiper. Not sure what else there is to do. It’s a train.
- dboreham 1y agoAt least one train has crashed with fatalities due to hitting a cow.
- BenjiWiebe 1y agoCan you provide a reference? That's difficult to believe. Was this a diesel locomotive pulling a freight train or was it something smaller/lighter?
- 1718627440 1y agoNot your correspondent, but trains are quite easy to derail, because they work by sliding orthogonality over the rail, and because otherwise there are way worse crashes. The cow might not have caused the fatalities directly, but derailment, and a fast train crashing unbound through the landscape has a lot of kinetic energy.
- BenjiWiebe 1y agoI decided to do a little searching myself, now that I'm at my PC. In 1984 there was 13 killed from derailment from hitting a cow, but that was a "push-pull" train and it wasn't the locomotive that hit the cow, but a much lighter "control car".[1] Another case where the train hit a cow and launched it through the air, and it struck and killed someone.[2] Also, in [1] there weren't any cowcatchers on the train either. All the trains (besides possibly an old steam locomotive, IDR) that I've seen in my life have cowcatchers and also a locomotive in the lead. [1] https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/unholy-cow-the-1984-polmont-scotland-train-derailment-b4159a3b94e8 https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/unholy-cow-the-1984-polmont-... [2] https://morningsidekick.com/indian-man-killed-in-freak-traincowurination-accident/ https://morningsidekick.com/indian-man-killed-in-freak-train...
- 1718627440 1y agoWell all the locomotives I see daily, that are not steam locomotives from 50 years ago, don't have cowcatchers. Instead they are designed that, in case of a frontal collision with another train, they push each other to the side, so that there will be less deaths. What I remember is a collision of a high speed train with sheep in a tunnel. (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenbahnunfall_im_Landr%C3%BCckentunnel https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenbahnunfall_im_Landr%C3%BC...) The collision itself only was with a single sheep.
- BenjiWiebe 1y agoOops you're right about cowcatchers. It's more like a plow-shaped bumper.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 1718627440 1y agoAnd those aren't even in the category of light vehicles. Think of what happens to this in an animal collision: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB-Baureihe_642 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB-Baureihe_642
- 1718627440 1y agoThe goto is to scare the animal or human away with the horn.