What's a safe distance from the train?

[tp49]

The answer is of course, however far enough it takes for a jury in a modified comparative fault jurisdiction to not find you 51% at fault. :hi:

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The answer is of course, however far enough it takes for a jury in a modified comparative fault jurisdiction to not find you 51% at fault. :hi:

I like where you're going with this but anytime a jury is involved it's hard to know what the final call will be or why. My guess is that you can remain 49% or less responsible so long as you are completely behind the yellow line. That being said if the yellow line wasn't enough to keep you unharmed or alive it may not be worth the final judgement.

 

[tomfuller]

This rail car is more than 80 yards below the UP tracks west of the Cascade Summit. https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/d53be1ef-842a-4b0f-9a59-a87b8f8b3341_l.jpg

I was the first to find on the geocache in 2007. Some fools came through a tunnel to get there but not me.

The name of the geocache is "Automated Railway".

 

[chakk]

Being inside the station may not be safe either. In 1953, a Pennsylvania RR passenger train lost braking coming into Washington, D.C. The engine and baggage car came through the gates, destroyed the Stationmasters office, and would have entered the main waiting room had the floor not collapsed and dropped said equipment into the basement baggage room.

Many years later (1980's?), a derailing freight train demolished the Amtrak station at Wisconsin Dells.

 

[neroden]

An anecdote: several decades back I was picking up my mom arriving on the Empire Builder at Glenview, IL. There was a freight ahead of the EB; the PA system told everyone to completely clear the platform (i.e. go into the shelters). Being a teenager, I figured staying on the platform couldn't hurt me. I was about twelve feet from the edge of the platform. The freight came through at about 60MPH. Once the initial blast of air passed, all I could do was stand there, lean back and pray. If I had lifted a foot I'd have been sucked into the train. It turns out a long passing train creates air vortices which act to suck nearby objects toward the train. This effect is more pronounced the longer the train. That definitely got added to the list of "stupid things I'm NEVER going to do again."

By contrast, I've stood within about 10 feet of a 60 mph train blasting past the platform without any risk whatsoever of being "sucked into the train", and only relatively light wind, and that wind pushing strictly away from the train. That's interesting.

I was on a *high* platform (48 inches) and you were on a *low* platform (8 inches). I betcha that makes a difference. Those vortices are probably mostly below high-platform level. I've noticed way more wind effects from passing trains on low platforms.

 

[RPC]

I've also stood on the platform on the NEC without experiencing a vacuum. I suspect it has to do with the length of the train - not an issue for a typical passenger consist. The incident I mentioned was a long (80 cars?) freight.

 

[neroden]

Nah, I was passed on a high platform by a long (100-car?) freight going quite fast (Syracuse gets a lot of them), with no vacuum.

I really suspect it's the platform height. It makes sense: the airflow is bound to be very different down at "wheel level", with the void underneath the train, than up at the level of the middle of the shipping containers.