Driving at night

[robbeech]

You certainly do get a feel for where you are. I spend a lot of time on tour buses and travelling between venues at night you get a good idea where you are. Two right hand bends, a stop st some lights and a hard left is obvious, but even motorway to motorway you can tell the difference in road quality and slight curves. Just something you learn I guess.

 

[Bromley boy]

I'd have thought the worse time to drive is sunrise/sunset when the sun is low in the sky & bright, quite often traffic lights can be hard to make out, show as Amber when they're on Red or Green because of the sunlight suspect rail signals have similar problems even with bells & buzzers.

100%.

Signals can “wash out” but have what’s called a “hot-spot” - part of the lens with a different refractive index to the rest, so that (in theory) you can still see a spot of colour even when close up/viewing in sunlight.

As for DOO monitors in low sunlight...

 

[duesselmartin]

In steam days, lights must have been No more than positioning lights. I assume the old signs did not reflect.

 

[Tractor2018]

You develop a sixth sense pretty quickly.

This.

Irish Rail had high power headlamps in their locomotives but not in their MUs . So the advantages must be limited.

Or the costs of retro fitting outside their budget despite any benefit...........? Maybe.

There is a road sign at Alvecote on the WCML which flashes up at passing Pendos and Voyagers telling the driver to slow down. They are obviously doing more than 30mph!

Hahahahaha.

That’s very sensible. Some of the effects of lights can be surprising, and very misleading!

This too.

One I particularly hate is the first day of temporary road traffic lights in line of sight with a signal. Back of annual leave or rest days onto a late in the dark, round a corner, and it's like WTF?!

 

[Ianno87]

Some TOCs of course send first/last trains of the day via diversionary routes to act as route knowledge retention services.

As such, for most of the year this means that the route may only be covered in the mormal plan of service in hours of darkness. How does this work? Is it backed up by (say) training videos filmed in daylight?

 

[MrPIC]

There are certain parts of the routes I sign which I have never been over, even when road learning I had to walk along the track because there are no planned services along there. Obviously this requires route refresher training, but even that got knocked on the head when Network Rail refused to let staff walk the track at that location anyway.
Its much like if you drive the same route to work every day in your car, you know where you can speed up and overtake, or those bends that are sharper than they look. Drivers are going up and down usually the same bit of track day in day out, it would be hard NOT to know where you are! Having said that, sometimes if the siggy calls you up for trespassers or whatever at XXX user worked crossing in the middle of nowhere, can take a few mins to figure out where exactly that crossing is!

 

[sw1ller]

I find the combination of bright sun and a 158 to be the most difficult. I love sunrises and sunsets, don’t get any issues with signal sighting. Fog is fun, keeps you on your toes. Snow makes you a bit sick, especially when the driving wind changes to the same direction you’re traveling in and it feels like you’ve stopped while going 75!
But the sun and 158’s make me have to sit at an awkward angle so I can see the speedo on the ERTMS. Those screens are gash with my white shirt. I can pop on my jacket but then I’m too hot! Can’t win.