Patrick Boylan wrote:Terrapin Station, I assume you and Dutch are talking about the recent Spuyten Duyvil wreck, which so far nobody has named in this thread. About all I can quibble about Dutch's statement is a bit of hyperbole, the push operation had very little to do with what transpired. Do you doubt that the wreck's immediate cause was engineer's inattention? Other than alerters and other locomotive noises, which might not have helped the engineer pay attention better, what is there about push vs pull that you feel contributed to that wreck?The reason it keeps coming up is because early media stories reported that the cab alert system that would have been functioning in "pull" mode was not designed to function in "push" mode. I don't know if that is true, but I have not seen that claim refuted here or elsewhere.
If (?) that's true, then push/pull may well have made a difference. Safety systems that only function half the time are idiotic. The notion that an alerter system "might not have helped" if the train was pointed the other way is not a credible argument. It might have helped a lot.