Posted: 4/25/2003 6:10:24 PM EDT
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A train goes by my house twice a day. It almost always has three engines. Now my question. The third engine is always backwards, always. Why? And is there an engineer in each engine? Thanks. |
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Quoted: A train goes by my house twice a day. It almost always has three engines. Now my question. The third engine is always backwards, always. Why? And is there an engineer in each engine? Thanks. I don't know why the third engine is backwards, but there is not an engineer in each engine, as they are all controlled from the lead engine. |
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i'll take a stab at the one backward one.the crew cab is most forward for increased visability.when the train drops off its rolling stock and picks up more to go on the return trip, that last backward engine now becomes the first engine and is facing forward. [img]http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/IG_LoadImage.asp?iImageUnq=11241[/img] |
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Quoted: A train goes by my house twice a day. It almost always has three engines. Now my question. The third engine is always backwards, always. Why? And is there an engineer in each engine? Thanks. Because if they hafta run the train "backwards", that engine will then become the "lead" engine...Now facing frontwards! [:D] |
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Quoted: thanks Rainman .. this gives me a change to ask my question....[:)] Why do we have signs that say there are "REMOTE CONTROLLED" just seems like ASKING for trouble. It's to inform motorists that lights are automated, and therefore, they, (motorist), need to be more alert!! [:D] |
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I will try to answer your question for the rainman. The first part for the return trip they would have a lead unit if they do not have a wye to turn the units at their final destination. They also use the headlidht as a marker device on the rear of the trais as required by the rules. Part two of the question about an engineer in each unit... not needed you can run up to twelve units on the head end before you lose resistance in the cables between units. As for the train you describe chances are it is remote controlled and the rear unit is ran by the same engineer in the lead locomotive. and for the question about the unmaned train ... call your congressman and complain about this unsafe practice..and ask how many derailments and people that have been killed by the unmaned trains ran by the famous Black Box. By personal that are not licensed locomotive engineers. Bad trend in the makeing. |
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Rainman- The engines in the consist are MUed with cables and hoses and controlled by the engineer in the lead unit. It doesn't matter which way the units face. The reason the back one on this train is always facing backwards is because it is a local or work train. It will go somewhere and then return. There is not a place to turn the engines so the crew just switches ends as the lead and then returns to their terminal. Allot of times you will see engines at the rear of a train nowadays, these engines are also operated by the engineer in the lead locomotive via remote control called DP or Distributive Power Cluster- The remotes you are talking about are yard switch engines. They used to be operated by a federally licensed engineer in the cab watching things. Not now days. They are now operated by an unlicensed switchman somewhere on the ground, maybe far away from the locomotives. He cannot see the road crossings or blow the whistle. This has cause many cities in the US to ban the operation of this type of remote operation. The BLE is fighting the railroads on this issue because there have been several fatal accidents on the railroad property. You may want to form a group in your area to get these remote engines banned. These remote controlled switch engines are not the same thing as the DP remotes I mentioned above. Here is a link to the BLE web site with lots of information on the bad news remotes. Hope this helps. [url]http://www.ble.org/[/url] |