Tractor vs. Train

keeney · Dec 17, 2005

My Mom's 2nd husband is a retired railroader, and one of the things he says he always found curious was the number of vehicles he has seen that collide with trains, not by getting hit by the locamotive at the front, but running flat into the side of the train. He said its even common for people to T-bone a stopped train sitting across the road.

Worst thing that ever happened to the train: a minor derailment. Usually just some bent handrails and scratched paint.

He did say that besides intensely cold weather screwing up tracks and switches, that collisions at uncontrolled crossings are the most common cause of delay. The less crossings along a given line, the higher the chances the trains on it will run on time.

He said that they don't even bother to try a panic stop. All they can really do is lay on the horn and maybe start the process of slowing down. If they actually hit somebody, then they come to a normal stop. Sometimes, in the case of people running into the side of the train, the guys on the train don't even know about it until somebody tells them on the radio...

Steve_Miller · Dec 17, 2005

The picture in this article looked almost identical to an accident that happened in Milford, Nova Scotia a few years ago. A man was crossing at a double crossing with a large Deere tractor that looked similar to this one. It was a private crossing into a farm, one of the tracks was a siding that CN parked cars on a regular basis, they would only leave a car length or so on each side of the crossing. The guy was inching ahead to see down the tracks and low and behold a VIA train was coming, he tried to back up but could not get out of the way fast enough as the limit was 55MPH through this part on the division. It tore the front end off the tractor, the driver was banged up but not hurt seriuosly. They have not used this track for storage since. The train survived relatively well other than cosmetic damage. There have been numerous accidents along this line in the past number of years. We had a dump truck from our company collide with a train. No serious injury to either train or driver (truck was a right-off). Two or three weeks ago a guy was walking along the tracks with his dog and a train came along and the dog must have got spooked, anyhow the guy tried to get the dog of the tracks, needless to say he and the dog died as result. A couple of years ago a half ton was returning some pallets to a sod company just down the road from me at a private crossing and was hit, I came along a short time after this one happening with the train partially blocking the crossing down the line further (about a kilometer past the accident, took the VIA train the long to get stopped), I noticed the radiator of something logded in the fuel tanks of the lead locomotive, I looked at the wife and said that didn't look good. Two men were killed instantly. No one knows what happened, it was on a level crossing with one to two miles visibility in both directions. You'll never win a one on one battle with a 200 ton locomotive unless you have someone else from above on your side. Please don't dismiss these accidents as news.

Steve

ym2610 · Dec 18, 2005

Hey Keeney I have a lot of railroad guys that come into my work, they have said that to, they don't lock the brakes, but because it will flat spot the wheels and will cost the railroad many many thousands of dollars to fix, and they wouldn't get stopped in time anyway. just wondering if your moms husband every said anything like that also. Robert

keeney · Dec 19, 2005

He also said that depending on how the train is loaded, a panic stop is likely to cause empty cars to derail and related damage and delay.

Mostly, they don't want to do anything that would tie up the tracks any longer than they have to, The delay is the most expensive thing - many of the loads they carry have time sensitive contracts.

slapshot · Dec 20, 2005

I'm often amazed at how people a deathly afriad of a bullet flying towards them (for obvious reason), but a train or a tractor trailer instills no fear!?!? A bullet weighs but a few grams but a truck or train................

-dave

rk246 · Dec 21, 2005

I think if must have to do with the thought that there is a live person operating the machine, which must intill the feeling that they won't let anything happen?

KubotaSteve · Dec 22, 2005

I ride a passenger train to work everyday and we have hit quite a few things and the train has always won for the most part. We hit deer quite frequently and it just like driving on a gravel road. We hit a car once and tore the front bumper cover off. The only way I knew we hit anything was the engineer locked the brakes and we slid for a couple of miles and the conductor told us what happened. Even with a 7 car passenger train to get slowed down from 70 mph it took us about 2 miles. A boulder had fallen onto the edge of the track once and we hit it with a glancing blow. It bent the front of the train and the steps to get up to the engine pretty bad. The boulder weighed several tons and a crane had to come and move it off the tracks. When they hit a person with a train, about the only investigation is to pick the pieces and put them in a small bag and drug test the engineer.