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People have been performing stunts for attention for hundreds of years. Technology made it faster and easier to gain an audience.
tourist falls off train and survives
- Thread starter y_p_w
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And we could ague that is also lowered the threshold for 'entertainment'....
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A couple of years ago we visited the Grand Canyon, and stopped at the overlooks to admire the view. There were a couple of tourist groups on busses, comprised of young adult Asian people, touring at the same time.
There were several times, that we observed several of them climb over the safety rails, onto frightening ledges, to get a photo of themselves there.
I assumed it was the trending thing to show how brave and stupid you can be, to the friends back home, in whatever country they were from.
There were several times, that we observed several of them climb over the safety rails, onto frightening ledges, to get a photo of themselves there.
I assumed it was the trending thing to show how brave and stupid you can be, to the friends back home, in whatever country they were from.
Those coach busses full of asian and indian tourists are the worst; no common respect and blocking the paths all the time.
Some use third rails. I heard that's basically what's used for dual-mode diesels out of New York Penn Station where they can't run in diesel mode until they're outdoors. For single-mode electric, Amtrak was using the EMD AEM-7 for years, but I think recently replaced them with something from Siemens. As for dual mode, this is a General Electric Genesis P32AC-DM. I think it's still operating off of a third rail in this photo. They'll run using outside electricity as far as they can go, but I guess they're used where the entire route isn't electrified.
I've talked to friend from India about riding on the tops of trains. It was technically illegal for anyone to ride on the outside of trains, but people did it anyways where it was somewhat tolerated. But the rule that mostly stopped it was that they had to stop the train if there were any train surfers.
Train surfing has been romanticized to some degree. I remember one of the scenes for the Most Interesting Man in the World ads for Dos Equis was of him riding on the top of a train somewhere in South Asia.
I've seen people hang over the edge of Half Dome with their legs hanging off. Granted it's probably not quite as dangerous as free soloing.
I've made one visit to the Grand Canyon. I took a photo of what I thought might be an animal out along the edge. When I got home I looked over my photos and I realized that it was a person who walked out there. Didn't look like an Asian tourist though. Still - I remember seeing the IMAX Grand Canyon movie over in Tusayan, and there was a scene that was filmed with someone right along the edge. There's also this New Mexico tourism commercial with a native hoop dancer doing so near the edge of a cliff.
The local electric bus drivers refer to the current collector as "overhead" as in "The overhead just fell off." It's a much simplified version of the pantograph found on an E-locomotive. The name pantograph is shared with the drawing/ copying instrument that was used before the invention of the mimeograph and the photocopier.
Always look forward!
Third rails are better for urban situations as they are more compact, better looking, and require no vertical clearance, which simplifies the construction of tunnels and stations. Because a third rail is close to the ground and must use small insulators, it is constrained to operate at a rather low voltage (hundreds of volts) which means shorter power transmission distance than overhead wires operating at kilovolts. All-electric trains are usually fitted with both types of pickup. It's important for the engineer to remember to stow the one that is not in use as there are things along the track that will hit it.
Buses need two lines though. In San Francisco, MUNI runs on/off of them with batteries. I'm guessing they're also charging the batteries while connected to the lines. The 30 Stockton runs all the way to the Presidio where there are no lines.
Light rail typically only needs one line since the rails will be used. I've walked over electrified rails buried in pavement. It's not dangerous unless someone has arms long enough to reach the overhead line.
I was reminded of 'Booger' in 'Revenge of the nerds': "We've got bush".
The shoe (power contact) on the engine in post #25 reaches up.
The shoes on NYC Subway trains press down. 600 VDC.
The shoes on NYC Subway trains press down. 600 VDC.
I was only talking about the design of the pickup mechanism that is named after the pentagraph and which is much simplified on buses and trams. It's merely a pole with a U-shaped pickup that fallows the overhead until it pops out.
Sure. But two overhead lines spaced about 18" apart and avoiding them crossing is way harder than a single overhead line where the rails are part of the electrical connection.
Sure but idiocy and circumstance can overcome 18" without any problem.
Absolutely. People thinking that it's OK to take photos or shoot film/video on train tracks. See Greg Plitt or the Midnight Rider film incident. Maybe less a matter of electrocution and more that no human being can survive a collision with a train.
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