Re: Rainforest Railroading

Michael,

I'm not certain as to where in the video to which you are referring to since there were many speed restrictions on that stretch but our speed restriction boards are Yellow with changeable black numerals.

This is the outer board placed 1200 metres out from the restriction; since he's working up grade there no need to pinch her down until almost on the restriction.



This is the "C" board (commencement) that also has a "T" on the opposite side for the end of restriction (termination), the E'Driver must have the train at or below the posted Outer board limit before passing the C board.



And you may notice the occasional illumination of this light below the speedo,



this is the forward indicator light of the Vigilance Device, something we've had since the mid 1970's on all Mainline locos. It appears BNSF sure could do with such a system after reading several of the NTSB reports.

Light illuminates for seven seconds every 55 to 60 seconds unless cancelled by use of the Reset button, moving Throttle or operating sanders or sounding airhorn or an Independant airbrake application, if not cancelled there is a whistle sounded in the cab for 8 to 12 seconds before the Penalty brake application and emergency signal transmitted to Train Control. There is also a 3 minute cycle on the fireman's side when a second man is present. If he doesn't reset that then the Driver's vigilance cannot be cancelled until done so. That is also switched out for the usual one man operation.


Two-DXC trains are usually about 30 CE hoppers for 2300 tonnes trailing weight, another 3 DXC are added for the 1:33 Otira Tunnel.
as for our rat-hole tunnels when the Da's came out in '55 they needed to have the tunnels lowered, those weren't allowed south of Paekakariki through the old Wellington & Manawatu Railway built tunnels until 1967. Here's a Ka banking a Da showing the comparison between rooflines.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2017 03:27AM by Chris Walker.