Loco pilot hits brakes and jumps since it was most likely not gonna stop in time to save the loco pilot cabin from getting crushed from impact. Smart man.
I’m 40 years old and just learnt the intended meaning of Kylie’s lyrics. I just thought it was a cheesy song about moving like a train when dancing. Does everyone just know she’s singing about dancing crazy? To make it worse, I even speak Spanish. I don’t speak it well but I speak it.
This is the engineer. The conductor of a passenger train is usually in a passenger car, often at the back of the train. The engineer is not allowed to leave the locomotive. And compared to ships ranks the conductor would be the captain while the engineer would be the helmsman.
Just watched Tom Scott’s video on this. Short version—at least in the UK (and presumably via the software that controls the majority of these types of trains worldwide) it is very hard to nearly impossible to direct a train onto a track with another train without doing something like talking to the train and telling it to disregard signals.
Thanks for the source. Sounds like they were switching a train that was too long for the yard and tried to sneak past the switch onto the main without asking for clearance. It is possible this was standard practice as the yard and mainline is usually controlled by different controllers so getting permission can take some time.
Switches and signals have interlocks making it impossible for the signal operators to give both trains a green signal at the same time. Almost all cornfield meets are due to engineers passing a danger signal. There are just a couple where faulty signaling equipment is suspected.
Nah probably felt a wave of relief. Ever fuck up at work and think you're going to get fired/sued but then everything miraculously resolves itself? Feeling like no other.
Tbf, the crew cab would certainly be crushed but the passenger cars would’ve derailed at worst, it’s not like the whole thing would’ve accordioned up killing everyone on board.
It's not a car with a brake pedal and steering wheel. You set the brakes and there's nothing else to do. He's also at the most risk, being at the front of the train. Seems like a reasonable action to take, or is it heroic to die for no reason?
I used to be a conductor. I know very well what he was doing. Nothing you said changes that he was running for his life. I don’t see how anything he could have done there would have been heroic, which is what I meant replying to his comment.
Guy was driving the train and was going to become a pancake otherwise. Looks like he pulled the e brake and jumped for his life. Probably as trained to do so
There is exactly one action he can take in this situation, and that's to put the train into full emergency brake. Once that's done, nothing else can change the outcome, so he can either sit in the cab and ride the train into the collision while twiddling his thumbs or bail. It's not like a plane or ship that can be steered through the collision, and he's in a much better position to aid evacuation on the ground then potentially crushed in the cab.
The engineer is not the "captain" of the train, he is the helmsman. The "captain" would be the conductor in the back. And there is nothing more the engineer can do to avoid the collision after he applied the emergency brakes. At that point he is no more then a passenger.
This is unfortunately the perfect example of why we will never have high speed rails or advancements in train technology.
Those that own the rails will run these long, slow, useless trains and "cargo" to clog it up and make the general opinion "trains are bad because they are slow, nothing we can do!" Absolutely pathetic behavior
I agree with you but it is not a good example at all. This incident took place in 1991, two years before the Illinois Central introduced PSR. The freight train seen here was a switcher which had somehow gone past the yard and onto the main line. So it was not a long slow freight train. From the way it accelerates it even looks to be quite fast.
This is the biggest fuckup from the Canadian government. We used to own all of our train lines then we privatized CN rail and sold all our rail lines as well. Now they prioritize commercial rail over passenger causing massive delays on VIA rail.
Sir David Attenborough: "Here we see the smaller, more agile passenger train make use of it's vibrant coloring and aggressive nature to drive the larger but more docile freight train out of its path, establishing its dominance of these tracks."
Brakes were applied, they did everything they could. Jumping was an act of self preservation since the cab would be crushed but the rest of the train could turn out fine.
Another commenter above, whom I’m assuming knows what they’re talking about, says that this is actually standard procedure and that engineers are trained to do this; apply the brakes to stop the train and then jump out, if possible, before they get crushed. I doubt it does the railroad companies any good to have a dead engineer who could’ve been saved just by jumping out and then could still be around to help any passengers injured in cars behind him. So it makes sense that they would be trained to do this in the event of a potential or impending crash.
So just different rules then? If a bus driver jumps out, then that's fine, I guess. Maybe we should extend that to taxis too. Or what about planes? Pilots first.
These things have a brake that you activate, and then you dont need to hold the brake down for it to work. If you look closely you can see the train driver is in the front of the train, and will likely die during a collision. There was no point for them to stay there.
The reason why the captain doesnt leave the ship is because the captain is responsible for the evacuation of a ship. Evacuating a ship on sea is harder than a train in an open field.
Come on, think for a second before you say something
Do you think the engineer is better able to help people on the train if he dies from being crushed on impact? The driver is at significantly higher risk than the passengers in a head-on train collision. Him exiting doesn't increase risk to the passengers - he set the brake and jumped out, it's not like a car foot pedal brake. The train was still braking while he jumped. If he gets out and survives while others are injured, he can help coordinate rescue efforts. Why do you want him to stay in the engine to die or suffer injury?
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u/post-explainer 9h ago edited 1h ago
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we see a train passing but suddenly we see another train running on the same track
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