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
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