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Post by pjw4118 on Oct 26, 2013 12:12:01 GMT 12
During a visit by one of our export customers ,now Pacific based , I asked him about his service in Russia. Yes he was Russian !
Suprisingly he spoke with a lot of pride about his role in developing a nuclear powered train.
Apparently the missile force used trains made up to look like freight or passenger trains , but hiding missile launchers. These were shunted around the rail network to confuse US satellites .However they were spotted as they refuelled , hence the interest in a nuclear train that wouldn't stop.
He never saw the programme finished as CMT sent him to Angola and Afghanistan. His comment about the latter was brute firepower would never be successful in this ....of a land.
Did the nuclear train ever get deployed ?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 26, 2013 12:25:09 GMT 12
Now that's a scary accident waiting to happen!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Oct 26, 2013 13:11:13 GMT 12
Now that's a scary accident waiting to happen! Just like nuclear-powered submarines, and there have been a few of those disasters. Not to mention a couple of satellites with nuclear cells onboard that have re-entered the earth's atmosphere and deposited nuclear radiation across parts of the earth's surface. And of course, nuclear weapons are designed to kill thousands of human beings in the blink of an eye, and that isn't merely theoretical either, as it has actually occurred. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 26, 2013 13:14:00 GMT 12
But nuclear trains have the added risk of Russian drivers at level crossings. Just look at Youtube to see what Russian drivers are like!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 26, 2013 13:14:35 GMT 12
Motorists I mean, not the train drivers.
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Post by corsair67 on Oct 26, 2013 13:24:50 GMT 12
But nuclear trains have the added risk of Russian drivers at level crossings. Just look at Youtube to see what Russian drivers are like! I think you'll find in most cases, a Russian train would simply carry on as nothing happened if a Lada got in its way..  |
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Post by pjw4118 on Oct 26, 2013 15:36:07 GMT 12
Have you noticed that trains have a limited ability to swerve
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Post by pjw4118 on Oct 26, 2013 16:08:30 GMT 12
Global Moderators , have you been at the drink early today.
Before we launch into distractions such as nuclear powered hedge clippers , dishwashers and their dangers , back on subject.
Didnt the US covert YB 36s or something like them to run on nuclear power , and I seem to recall a steam powered Zeppelin but they had problems with coal storage.
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Post by corsair67 on Oct 26, 2013 18:12:36 GMT 12
Global Moderators , have you been at the drink early today. Before we launch into distractions such as nuclear powered hedge clippers , dishwashers and their dangers , back on subject. Didnt the US covert YB 36s or something like them to run on nuclear power , and I seem to recall a steam powered Zeppelin but they had problems with coal storage. I did have some a quick drink of boot polish with a metho chaser earlier on - but no more than usual!  Wasn't it a B-52 that carried an airborne nuclear reactor? |
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Post by raymond on Oct 26, 2013 19:35:04 GMT 12
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Post by pjw4118 on Oct 27, 2013 14:59:32 GMT 12
Corsair , such moderation
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Oct 27, 2013 16:34:52 GMT 12
Motorists I mean, not the train drivers. I have collided with motor vehicles on level crossings many more times than I really wish to recall over a period of about 37½ years, and I have never experienced anything more than minor damage to the train. Basically, trains "don't take prisoners" and a motor vehicle crashing into them is the equivalent of a bumble-bee crashing into you. I'm serious....the last collision I had involved a motor vehicle tee-boning the side of the locomotive and it would have still been doing at least 90km/h at the point of impact, and all it did was dent the fuel tank and put a small split in it that resulted in a slow leak of fuel. Nothing else whatsoever was damaged on the locomotive, even though the impact was so brutal that the motor vehicle was completely demolished. The motor vehicle literally just bounced off, disintergrating as it did. So I wouldn't worry too much about the solidity of Russian trains compared with motor vehicles they meet on level crossings. |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Oct 27, 2013 16:39:11 GMT 12
Just look at Youtube to see what Russian drivers are like! On a bad day, you should see what New Zealand drivers are like at level crossings. Such as driving straight through STOP signs on country level crossings at 100+ km/h without slowing down or even turning their heads to look. Or pulling out and overtaking a line of cars stopped at the flashing red lights and bells and driving straight over the crossing seconds before a train passes over the crossing at speed. Or driving onto the wrong side of the road so they can get around lowered barrier arms and get across the crossing, hopefully before the train enters the crossing at speed. |
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Post by suthg on Oct 27, 2013 19:36:51 GMT 12
Not nice for the rail throttle jockeys, as you say - there is usually nothing you can do to change the outcome. And there is often the likelihood of a tragic end  A logging truck here near Kinleith Mill had a kiss with a loco - got the KW tractor unit over the line but the 50T trailer load took the loco off track and they both rolled over. (20 years ago?) The loco was doing less than 40k at the time and with a rake of empty mixed wagons coming up hill. The truck had just driven over a single lane bridge over the highway probably at 20km/hr, and a 140m downhill run to the crossing. Not sure why he couldn't stop. |
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