What would you do?
 

You are walking with a friend along a footpath that crosses a busy electrified mainline on the level. As you approach the crossing you notice that someone has deliberately placed about half a dozen hardened steel pandrol clips on the rails of both the up and down lines. Almost immediately the crossing warning light changes to red indicating the approach of a train. The view to your left is limited to about ¾ mile by a long sweeping curve and the view to your right is only slightly better being somewhere in the region of one mile. The maximum line speed is 100 m.p.h. and the route is used by virtually all types of freight and passenger trains. Because of the restricted visibility the direction from which the train is approaching is not immediately obvious although very shortly the sound of a diesel loco, working hard, is heard to your left. The train, which you assume to be a freight, is not yet visible and although it doesn’t sound like it’s travelling particularly fast there is always the chance that a second, higher speed train, will also approach from the right……………WHAT WOULD YOU DO ?


I know we have a number of professional railwaymen on the forum and I will be particularly interested in what they have to say.

John

I would ring the line control room to see if it would be possible to stop the train. Every automatic level crossing I've seen (admittedly not many) has had a little box with a phone in it, so that HGV can get permission to cross the line. Mind you, I'm no expert on such matters, my hometown having no level crossings or a main line.

Adam

It wasn't a proper vehicular level crossing Adam. It was just a footpath/bridleway with user operated swing gates. No telephones.
John.

Ah. In that case I'd like to think I'd do my best to remove the clips, but in the event I probably wouldn't be brave enough. I'd try to get the drivers attention and get him to stop at least.

Adam

I can't believe that the professional railwaymen (past and present) on this forum have nothing to say about this scenario.:confused:
Come on guys......are you afraid of being contradicted by colleagues?.......Can "trespassing" on the railway, for whatever reason, ever be condoned?......what was the likelihood of the Pandrol clips causing a derailment?
Several years ago when I asked this same question on an American Forum I was inundated with replies.
John.

From a non-professional railwayman's view, anything on the top of the rail is likely to ping off at very high speed in any direction when hit by a wheel.

So no Jenny Agutter heroics from me.
I would run.

(Though if there were no train coming, I would kick the clips off, trying to remember my long expired PTS and IWA training about sighting distances)

Nice bit of editing, Shed Cat.:D You are thinking along the same lines as myself. My concern and something I would like expert advice on, is if the bogie of a DMU or a DVT travelling at 100 mph could "knock off" a dozen of these clips without becoming unstable.
John.

Just seen this as a railway man,in my opion it would depened on how many clips were on the rails,if it was safe to do something like remove them i would remove them,and then report the problem to a manger in the control room.
If all else failed i would try to stop the train by some means but i this case you can only hope the driver can see you and stop.
But in on way would i place myself in any danger over it,All the best,Ian.

Yes, I had to look up the spelling of our Jenny's name inspite of the impression her films made on me as a youth. Mustn't go too far down this route, as I belive mention of JA is a cardinal sin on the SEMG site :D

Ian, thanks for your input. I am assuming from your comments that you would personally consider the clips to be a potential derailment risk.
John.