01-01-2009, 09:52 AM
The host is a bit "over the top," but I think we have to give him a bit of a break. The series is aimed at the general public that knows nothing about trains, not at railfans. I thought it interesting when he pointed out that visibility is at best 5 miles from the cab, but that haze and general atmospheric conditions usually limit the visibility to 2 miles. It also takes 2 miles to stop a train that big from 60-70 mph. That means that if the engineer sees a car or truck on a grade crossing, he has to instantly decide if the vehicle is stopped as soon as he sees it and then go to an emergency stop to avoid a wreck if it is stopped. What he didn't mention is that if the engineer puts the train into an emergency stop, and the vehicle moves off the tracks before he gets there, the engineer has a good chance of flat spotting a bunch of the wheels on the train.