Remote Control Shoving Platforms

[steinjr]

Sorry, I didn't realize that some of the message didn't go through. I meant a remote control caboose shoving platform.

Conceptually, a remote controlled caboose shoving platform makes no sense. A remote controlled unit is controlled from elsewhere. It makes no sense whatsoever to have a remote controlled unit on the front of a train moving over the road, with the person controlling it being elsewhere. Especially since you would need to string MU cables all the way from that caboose back to the actual locomotive.

Conceptually, it makes no sense to have a shoving platform fastened directly to the locomotive with MU cables, with a shoving platform having a radio receiver for remote control - you don't need a shoving platform if your locomotive is second from the front of the train - then you might as well just have the engine on the front, and you will be pulling, not shoving.

You of course could stand on a caboose/shoving platform wearing a belt pack, remotely controlling an R/C loco at the end of the train. But that wouldn't really take any special equipment on the shoving platform, I would think - in that case you could have stood on anything, using the belt pack to control the locomotive at the end of the train.

Course - there is no rule that says that you cannot use the same car in two different roles at different - either as a shoving platform (with some kind of protection for a conductor) at the front of the train when shoving a cut of cars a long way, or as an RC platform, MU'ed to a locomotive when you want to control that locomotive from a belt pack.

But neither role makes much sense for running at the tail end of a unit train across the road. It makes no sense to run a train across the road at road speeds with a shoving platform at the front.

Smile,
Stein