Great Video, really enjoyed it and thanks for sharing. Currently loving the class 66 on Train Sim World. I have to say this beats the hell out of sitting in traffic on the M6, what a great job to have.
The "bing" is a bell sounding a green signal, from the Automatic Warning System. If you hear a horn, the signal is either green over yellow, yellow, double yellow or yellow over red (prepare to stop) . There is a collector shoe under the loco, which goes across one of the rectangular boxes between the rails. The warning beep is a drive alerter. He has to ackowledge it or the computer will stop the loco. You do NOT want that to happen.
Michael Hill you will also notice that the alarm goes off when he goes over temporary AWS magnets installed where the Temporary Speed Restrictions are (yellow boards to the left) Also some don’t sound the alarm at all, that’s because they have shrouds on them as this was filmed before we commissioned the new Signalling system. This was many years ago now and things along this line look very different now !
Thanks for posting this great cab ride Ray. I really enjoyed it. I hope to become a driver my self with ews or fl. Hope to use your vids as road learning practise. Once again thanks.
This reminds of a friend's story. She grew up on various Pacific islands and knew nothing about trains. On a visit to the UK, back in the 1980s she took a train , as she thought, to Cardiff as she had relatives in Wales. After half an hour or so the train stopped somewhere and she heard her name called over the station PA system telling her she was on the wrong train! The one she needed came along about 10 minutes later. How did they know?
Great journey. Love the way you kept some of the waiting time at signal Charlie 112 as that adds to the real experience. Just out of interest how long did you wait in the end roughly?
Graeme Davis they are the AWS (Automatic Warning System). Electromagnets tied to the Signalling system that set of the receiver in the train that gives a warning according to the state of the Signal you are approaching. Bell for proceed or buzzer for anything else, which then has to be cancelled or the train brakes are applied. The magnets are so strong that if you get a analogue wristwatch near them it will fry it and get 2 stuck together on the hand trolley when you are installing them then it’s almost impossible to separate them!
I'm sorry but aren't Severn Tunnel wasn't under large river estuary and deeper in middle? How we can see a light from other end of this tunnel then. Where are the river now?
Yeh, as another guy commented...66 's seem to be very Noisy indeed..when inside them...and seem to produce a very noisy ride indeed....Drivers of these machines must have to wear friggin' ear plugs..they have such a loud drone-ing sound to them...!!!.
Nice footage. How do you get to go in the cab of one of those, because I'd really like to do that, or are you a train driver? Oh, and I also do railway vids. If you could, I would really appreciate it if you checked out my channel and subscribe if you like. Thanks!
I don't know what Australia does to keep its train drivers awake, but I know the system to prevent running a red light is a lot simpler, and is nearly fool-proof (nearly... there's no such thing as absolutely fool-proof, as the designer of the Titanic discovered). Next to each signal is a metal box with a spring-loaded pivot emerging from the side at one end. The pivot is attached to a metal arm which ends in a metal "shoe." If the signal is at "stop" or there is a fault, the arm is raised. It lowers only if the signal is set to any version of "proceed." On each engine is a pipe leading down to a small lever at the same height as the raised shoe. If the shoe is raised and the train goes past the signal, the lever is forced back by hitting the shoe, which releases the air from the brake system, forcing the train into an emergency stop. The driver cannot prevent or override this. Period. The driver has to actually get out of the cab and physically move the lever back to the vertical (which requires a tool since the lever is deliberately made to be impossible to move by hand) before the train can proceed (although even a lump of wood makes a suitable tool, still it does require a tool and not just bare hands).
What you are describing is called a "trip" mechanism, and only exists in New South Wales electric passenger trains. It can be rest by the driver from within the cab.
