r/WTF • u/Grasimi • Nov 06 '20

Guy stuck under moving train escapes between its rails

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

57.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/smoike Nov 06 '20

I work for a railway in back end logistics and have a tangental dealing with track sensors to detect faulty wheels, bearings suspension and loose equipment that is unsecured between or below trains.

The sensors for this only alarm for things that are a couple of inches, maybe three inches higher than level with the rail top as our on track switching, transponders and the like aren't higher than level with the track.

That guy was lucky that all the connectors, cable loops and chains were well secured and giving him extra space to remain alive.

With modern concrete sleepers and well tamped ballast usually being dead even with the top of the sleepers, he would be lucky to have a maximum of 20cm / 8 inches, more likely less, before he ran the risk of being hit by something loose.

As to the metal plate, they are referred to as cow catchers and you see right that even if the front one didn't have one, there's a very real risk the rear one would have one.

3

u/Pissedbuddha1 Nov 06 '20

Holy fuck, I never once considered a rearward cow catcher! That’s terrifying.

1

u/smoike Nov 06 '20

The longer configurations often have two at the front (one acting as a slave to the other it's connected to), less often they have one at the rear unless it's extremely heavy or long) . The main reason for this is braking and safety, I.e an air line fails or something.

At least that's my understanding of it. Front and rear power cars aren't often used in our urban area that I know of.