Re: Rainforest Railroading, Vigilance/Alertor

Hogger42

I dunno why its a sore subject, I asked a question on Altamont [www.altamontpress.com] following the release of this NTSB report.. There was another report detailing the rear-ending of a standing train, the alertor seemed to only be on a two minute sounding, is that right? And that not all Locomotives are fitted with them, is that correct?

The vaguest answer came back to my 2nd comment >>The fact that you don't have an alerter on the second mans side is worrying,

Whether the practice is worrying or not depends on what you grew up with. What I mean by this is how much paternalism you are willing to accept from The Authorities. The European way of thinking, based on centuries of their "countries" being run by royalty and the nobility, is a lot more paternalistic in outlook than places like the US which were founded by those who wished to escape this sort of thing.

I really was bemused by DrZarkoff's relating "European thinking" as an excuse to having the 2nd man on the loco able to nod off anytime.

This is the reason we got the Vigilance Devices fitted ...a local shunt job running longhood first in snooze mode ran a red signal into another train.


[flic.kr]

and the reason Enginedriver 3yearly Refresher courses were introduced....

23 March 1977, Newmarket, Auckland – At around 4:00pm a Wellington to Auckland freight train collides with an Auckland to Helensville suburban train near the Parnell Tunnel during a widespread signal system power failure after the passenger train failed to stop at a hand signalled junction and continued running on the wrong line; the driver of the passenger train was killed and both locomotives (DX2639 and DA1426) written-off.
Churchman, Geoffrey B (1992). Danger Ahead New Zealand Railway Accidents in the Modern Era. IPI Publishing Group. ISBN 0-908876-74-2.

PS if your reply could come under a Communications Muzzle then please pm your answer.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2017 04:38AM by Chris Walker.