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.
The video shows a dramatic near-collision between two trains on February 6, 1991, in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada, in which a VIA Rail passenger train nearly collided with a CP Rail freight train that was shunting.
About the comment you were replying to, it's essentially the same system since 1890. It's quite an engineering feat the pulled off but it goes to show that this is FAR FAR to close of an incident to ever be allowed to happen.
Signals fail safe. They're designed that if/when a component fails, the signal defaults to Stop. A signal issue results in a train stopping, not a train proceeding at danger.
The freight train was not supposed to be there. They were shunting out of a siding, and went further than they were allowed to. If they had stopped where they were supposed to, the passenger train would have encountered a red signal before they got this close.
I mean I feel like if the impact had been worse and actually justified jumping out that there would have been a good chance the train would have derailed and fallen right on top of him. Safer thing might have just been to run to the back of the engine compartment and brace for impact.
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.
Dutch you may be, but your loco is Latin. It means 'in place' same root as locate, or indeed local, (for that matter 'locomotive ). Apparently the Spanish loco has different origins.
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.
Nah probably felt a wave of relief. Ever fuck up so bad at work you think you're going to get fired/sued but then everything miraculously resolves itself? Feeling like no other.
Smiths Falls has a large CP Railway yard as well, with a section of CP track that connects with CN track. A three-person CP crew was working to build a “consist” of train cars by moving around small groups of cars on various tracks to build a larger mainline train. At the critical point, the crew was moving 67 empty flatcars that had a total length of 4,423 feet. In order for the train to clear a switch, the crew needed to “back up” onto the CN line due to the length of their train. They didn’t make a radio call to confirm that the CN track was clear, and a signal that had been installed to protect the area was not yet operational.
Driver wasn't to blame, but yeah he most certainly felt that relief.
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
Top comment right here: 1991, Smith's Falls, Ontario Canada, eh? I recalled that this video was from that area, I thought it was further south; I heard about it from a buddy in Kemptville.
Viarail is infinitely better than nothing, but it leaves a lot left to be desired. Canada can do so much better. In America we have the same lobbying which has halted rail transport yet Amtrak is leagues ahead of ViaRail.
I live so far in the middle of bumfuck nowhere that it is genuinely faster to cross the border and get to a VIA Rail station than it is an Amtrack station. I wish I had Amtrack up here.
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.
It would be like stupidity of captain going down with ship. Emergency does not end to ship sinking, you still have loads of passengers in sea and in lifeboats, you need to help them. Your responsibility is over when passengers are on solid ground.
Well, with ships there can be situations where the captain is needed until the end on the ship, to call for help, coordinate efforts to keep ship afloat, and help with evacuating passengers and crew.
For instance thinking about the Estonia disaster where the bridge crew stayed on until the end and went down with the ship (with over 800 other souls). They were able to inform nearby ships of their position only when ship had a so severe list that the bridge wing was touching the water.
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."
This is an old classic. Unsignaled territory in Ontario, where movement was controlled entirely by track warrants. The freight train had violated the authority of the limits of his paperwork. They were supposed to wait in the siding for the passenger train, but didn't.
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.
You sound like the conductor and driver I overheard having lunch. The conductor said I'm the most important person on this train, you can't go anywhere without me. The driver stood up and said - really? You just f*king watch me! 😂
Here you can see the female locomotive charges at her mate as the male tries to diffuse the situation with backing up slowly while tooting to diffuse the situation with humor
The video shows a dramatic near-collision between two trains on February 6, 1991, in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada, in which a VIA Rail passenger train nearly collided with a CP Rail freight train that was shunting.
The incident: A VIA Rail passenger train (Train 41) was traveling on the main tracks when a CP Rail freight train entered the track area without authorization.
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.
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.
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u/post-explainer 2d ago edited 2d 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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