Watching that film "Runaway Train" last night..

[bAzTNM]

Could that scenario happen on the British lines?

Two criminals escape from a high-security prison and hitch a ride on a train. Unfortunately, the train driver has a heart attack and falls out of his cabin onto the ground. The train is stuck on "Speed: HIGH" with no brakes for hundreds of miles, smashing into anything in it's way. Could that happen here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_Train_(film)

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Could that scenario happen on the British lines?

Two criminals escape from a high-security prison and hitch a ride on a train. Unfortunately, the train driver has a heart attack and falls out of his cabin onto the ground. The train is stuck on "Speed: HIGH" with no brakes for hundreds of miles, smashing into anything in it's way. Could that happen here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_Train_(film)

May be wrong but I'm sure the AWS or TPWS would prevent it from happening.

 

[jopsuk]

No- if the driver had a heart attackthe train would quite quickly stop (unless someone else took control) and on most lines the signallers could arrange a controlled derailment resonably swiftly if there was a "hijack"- plus hijackers are less likely to know about AWS, TPWS and (on the Great Western) ATP.

 

[LexyBoy]

May be wrong but I'm sure the AWS or TPWS would prevent it from happening.

And the Driver Safety Device (deadman's handle)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

American scrpt writers are not known to bring reality into film scrpts to spoil a good story line. Was it not the Americans who re-wrote history in a recent film to show the "Enigma Machine" event was all down to them :roll:

 

[GB]

While Hollywood does like to go all out with their movies, the situation is alot more plausable in the US then it is over here.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Could it happen here now? It is unlikely, but it would not be impossible (TPWS and the DSD can be isolated).

Could it have happened in 1985 (when the film was released)? I don't know, I don't know what equipment was in use back then.

May be wrong but I'm sure the AWS or TPWS would prevent it from happening.

Only if in an AWS/TPWS area, the equipment is not isolated and the signalman sets the signals to caution or danger (the 'control center' in the film were quite happy for it to run on) or there is an over-speed sensor/speed restriction warning.

And the Driver Safety Device (deadman's handle)

Not neccesarily, some older stock has different styles of DSD, which may not always need resetting every so often like newer ones do. It is also possible to isolate them.

 

[Smudger105e]

Not neccesarily, some older stock has different styles of DSD, which may not always need resetting every so often like newer ones do. It is also possible to isolate them.

Indeed, when 'sequence testing' the electrical control equipment (on 1963 stock, but worked on everything from 1951 to 1966 stock), it was not unusual if working alone to hang a shorting bar over the power handle which held it in 'weak field' and held the DSD down, leaving one free to test the equipment which was perhaps 2 vehicle lengths away from the cab.