Smokin' right along....

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed

OBS Chief
Joined
Feb 2, 2010
Messages
929
Location
Sunny North Dakota
Smokin' right along just North of Baltimore this morning on 98....
biggrin.gif


100_1346.jpg
 
I'd hate to see how fast you run!
laugh.gif


You should try out for the Olympic team!
mosking.gif
(But give up smoking first - you'll probably run faster!) Was that part of your "training" session for the next team trials?
huh.gif
 
Tumbleweed said:
Smokin' right along just North of Baltimore this morning on 98....
biggrin.gif
Click to expand...
You should tell them to hurry up and get the new CAF Viewliner baggage-dorms, dinner, and upgraded sleepers so you can increase your walking speed on the NEC to 125 mph! Got to get up a brisk pace for the cardio. :lol:
 
They got me to NYP about 15-20 minutes early....now I gotta wait for 49 this afternoon for Chicago and catch 7 out of there tomorrow afternoon...
cool.gif
 
Tumbleweed, reports are that the Viewliner Diner, #8400, will be on your train this afternoon. Let us know, please.
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
111? I thpought the current limit for NEC LDs was 110. I guess the engineers overspeed very often......
Click to expand...
You need to consider all GPS devices have a tolerance of few % so when it shows 111 mph, it is possible the train may physically be moving at 109 or 110 mph. Another thing to consider is that the engineers rely on the speedometer in the locomotive cabin and it is possible its calibration is different from the car GPS we are seeing here so the engineer may be well within his limits as per his speedometer. In today's age where everything is logged, tracked and reviewed, I don't think engineers risk overspeeding even once, forget about "very often".
 
Texan Eagle said:
Swadian Hardcore said:
111? I thpought the current limit for NEC LDs was 110. I guess the engineers overspeed very often......
Click to expand...
You need to consider all GPS devices have a tolerance of few % so when it shows 111 mph, it is possible the train may physically be moving at 109 or 110 mph. Another thing to consider is that the engineers rely on the speedometer in the locomotive cabin and it is possible its calibration is different from the car GPS we are seeing here so the engineer may be well within his limits as per his speedometer. In today's age where everything is logged, tracked and reviewed, I don't think engineers risk overspeeding even once, forget about "very often".
Click to expand...
Despite the flaws of GPS, it would be hard to think of engineers as flawless, not exceeding their assigned speed even by 1 mph. Would a engineer get fired if he ran 111 over a 110 zone?
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
Texan Eagle said:
Swadian Hardcore said:
111? I thpought the current limit for NEC LDs was 110. I guess the engineers overspeed very often......
Click to expand...
You need to consider all GPS devices have a tolerance of few % so when it shows 111 mph, it is possible the train may physically be moving at 109 or 110 mph. Another thing to consider is that the engineers rely on the speedometer in the locomotive cabin and it is possible its calibration is different from the car GPS we are seeing here so the engineer may be well within his limits as per his speedometer. In today's age where everything is logged, tracked and reviewed, I don't think engineers risk overspeeding even once, forget about "very often".
Click to expand...
Despite the flaws of GPS, it would be hard to think of engineers as flawless, not exceeding their assigned speed even by 1 mph. Would a engineer get fired if he ran 111 over a 110 zone?
Click to expand...
I suspect it depends on what the limit is. If it's an FRA-ordered speed limit (i.e. track class speed limits), then not likely (though there may be some very minimal wiggle room in the equipment to account for minor calibration errors and the like), but if it's "just" an equipment limit there might be a bit more room.
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
Texan Eagle said:
Swadian Hardcore said:
111? I thpought the current limit for NEC LDs was 110. I guess the engineers overspeed very often......
Click to expand...
You need to consider all GPS devices have a tolerance of few % so when it shows 111 mph, it is possible the train may physically be moving at 109 or 110 mph. Another thing to consider is that the engineers rely on the speedometer in the locomotive cabin and it is possible its calibration is different from the car GPS we are seeing here so the engineer may be well within his limits as per his speedometer. In today's age where everything is logged, tracked and reviewed, I don't think engineers risk overspeeding even once, forget about "very often".
Click to expand...
Despite the flaws of GPS, it would be hard to think of engineers as flawless, not exceeding their assigned speed even by 1 mph. Would a engineer get fired if he ran 111 over a 110 zone?
Click to expand...
Probably not, but my explanation was in reply to you mentioning "I guess the engineers overspeed very often..". Long story short, engineers don't overspeed on purpose, but it may happen a little bit once in while because of human or machine inaccuracy. No big deal.

On a related note, I have never seen what kind of controls Amtrak locos have, but once I did a cab ride in an express train in India and the engineer was so skilled and well-aware of his route, he maintained a 24 car long fully loaded passenger train at exact 110 km/hr (allowed track speed), not one more not one less, for almost half an hour despite the locomotive being of an older model that does not have an equivalent of "cruise control" to keep the speed steady. I came back very impressed with the level of expertise they have. :)
 
The speed being displayed by a GPS unit is calculated every time the GPS's position is updated, by figuring out the distance between the current position and the previous position and the amount of time elapsed since the previous update. Thus, it may well be inaccurate if either or both positions are slightly off -- for example, if it calculates that the train has moved 161.3 feet in a second, it will report that as 110 miles per hour. But if each of those positions was a few inches off, it could calculate that the distance traveled in the last second was 162.8 feet, which is 111 miles per hour.
 
I read I think on this forum that the FRA allows 3MPH over the speed limit. But if the train gets into a accident lets say it hits a person or car and is going even 1MPH over the speed limit all hell is going to break loose with the victims family's with accusations that if the train had not been speeding there family member would still be alive etc.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top