| Author | Message | ||
     David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 1732 Registered: 4-2003 |
The video on this link is a contribution by Samsung involving lateral thinking based on one of their products: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZetSRWchM4w?rel=0 I think it has a lot of merit if the cost is reasonable and it is a mandated fitment to all large trucks. | ||
| Robert Noel Reddington Grand Master Username: bob_uk Post Number: 471 Registered: 5-2015 |
That's clever. We get big artics in Dorset. On single lane roads it's dangerous to overtake. Not only that an overtaking car can also involve others in a pile up. 3 dead this week in Dorset caused by dangerous overtaking. Plus a couple of bikers have hit cars and are dead. 5 a week is about par. Speed always plays a big factor. Recently an Audi TT went through a bridge brick parapet and landed in the River Stour at Longham. The driver walked away wet but unhurt. Lucky man. Car totaled. A few years back a car with local famous footballers went off the road and one footballers was missing the police had a spot the footballer competition. The guy was found dead in a ditch. Tragic. I have inspected a few wreaked cars and its amazing. Bits that one would think wouldn't break are smashed to pieces. Engines snapped off gearboxes. The safety features only protect so far. In Dorset we have a few railway level crossings. It amazing to watch the number who race the gates and get hit by the gate. Some of the trains are 500 metres long and weigh 1000s of tons and take ages to stop. They are so stupid that they ignore the CCTV and get nicked later. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 1733 Registered: 4-2003 |
Bob, "level crossing chicken" is a popular sport here as well especially for the younger drivers. I always think of the level crossing warning sign in the railway yards at Port Headland which serviced the Mount Newman iron ore open cut mine which used 14,000 ton trains in the early 1980's hauled by a leading set of 3 3600HP locomotives with a second set of 3 similar locomotives in the middle of the train operated by remote control from the cab of the leading locomotive. The sign was on the internal road leading to the railway engineering offices and was a standard "X" format level crossing sign with a plaque underneath which carried the following inscription "Our trains take 7 minutes to pass this crossing - whether your car is on it or not." I have a slide of this sign stored away in my archives and, if my memory is still reliable, a similar photo also appeared in the US "Road and Track" magazine around the same time. The engineering offices also contained a simulator which was used by all the Pilbara mining companies for training their engine drivers before they were allowed to drive the real thing due to the complexities of managing the track profile and the mass of the trains themselves. One mistake leading to a broken coupling and subsequent derailment could cost over $1million [1980 prices] for every hour the line was out of service. You would be driving a train uphill with the brakes on maximum as the trailing ore cars were coming down a hill whilst the engines were going up the next hill then having to go notch 8 [full power] once the engines were going down the next slope and dragging the consist up the hill that had just been climbed. One incorrect application of brakes or power that created a jerk would snap a coupling and despite the brakes coming on automatically, the train would take a long distance to stop hopefully without derailing. For me, a long-time model railway enthusiast, the simulator was the ultimate train set. Since I was there in 1980, the trains have doubled in size and on-board drivers are about to be replaced by remote control drivers sitting at a computer instead of in a loco cab: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-12/pilbara-iron-ore-train-railway-safety/6688578 http://www.gereports.com/post/114576965935/trains-with-brains-will-haul-ore-through-earths | ||
| Robert Noel Reddington Grand Master Username: bob_uk Post Number: 472 Registered: 5-2015 |
I am a model train enthusiast as well. But more into the engineering side. I had a Hornby Double O Silver King A4 train set. I suppose my mechanic bent started there. Plus Meccano. With the meccano I like to build cable car systems around the house. Trains in Oz are king long and weigh much more than our UK trains. Get in the way and it's bound to be fatal. A mate who is a retired BR engine driver told me that quite often hes going faster than he can see to stop in sort of. At night no chance. He hit an empty car on a crossing and it took 400 metres to stop. Unfortunately he didn't apply the brakes until 150 metres before the crossing. Railways are safe. Providing people take care. We get people taking short cuts across 750v third rail tracks and mucking about with a 25kv AC line 12 ft above them. When I was an apprentice we watched a safety film about tresspassing in electrical substations. A guy went in to a substation to see what he could steal and got a bit to close to the buzz bars and a spark jumped and killed him. The film re enacted the event. Horse shoe curve in the USA a train going round can see the rear of train and also a train going up a cork screw and the loco passes over the rear of the train on a bridge. I think OZ has the longest straight line. I had a Vulcan bomber fly low banked at 60 degrees over my house. The noise was king loud. RR jet engines of course. It cost over 3 million quid to get the Vulcan in the air. |
