Saftey First

Southern Region third rail systems don't have a fourth rail (you don't
say). The electrified one is the rail on the outside sat on insulators.
On the LUL they have a fourth rail, the centre one is an earth - we (SR)
use the running rails as returns.

 

"...the difference between a dog and a plate-layer?"

 

....a dog doesn't take off your brake pipes.

 

TOG wouldn't just take off your brake pipes, he'd sell them at Kempton Park
afterwards.

 

Last episode was very poignant...

 

Maybe Sweller can confirm or not it but I guy I knew in the 80s who
worked for BR said more workers got killed on the roads (he always
called the rail tracks roads) by pissing on the live line or it's feeds
than hit by trains.

 

I have a vague recollection of going to work on a single carriage train
that had a diesel engine with gears and a man in the front doing
everything except steer. This was while doing a weeks on site stuff in
Scotland or up that way.

 

I'd say he was pulling your leg. The vast majority of staff deaths are
due to being struck by a rail vehicle.

Electrocution by pissing on the third rail usually results in internal
burns but not usually death. It's actually most unusual altogether, IME.

We do call the lines roads but not quite in that context. In the way you
refer to it we'd describe them as lines, lineside or on the track. Roads
are used in a defining a location, such as: "travelling on the up road";
"road learning"; "berthed on 3 road" and the like.

 

Bubblecar - Class 121/122 (IIRC) single car DMU with a Wilson's Epicyclic
Gearbox. I used to drive the bigger 2 - 4 car versions.
http://trainsferriesbuses.co.uk/newtonunit.jpg

 

The Collective UKRM. The source of all knowledge. (Well almost)

Thanks for putting me right Sweller

 

Once again thank you!

 

I'm thinking that a swift death from electrocution/heart failure might
be preferable to said "internal burns"

Seriously large amperage levels scare me shitless. Being in the final
steam stage/generating halls of a large power station did it every time.
Sweller was recounting the current levels to the motors in a Deltic
recently....gulp.

'Hog

 

Mick Whittingham says...

Mythbusters on Discovery tried the pissing on a live rail trick and found
it was incredibly difficult to get any sort of current to flow. The piss
stream breaks up into droplets and doesn't conduct.

 

So what voltage can you expect on the running rails used as an earth
when an engine goes by under power?

 

Depends on the width of the pipe and how much one needs to piss though
doesn't it.

 

I don't know although I suspect that would be the least of your worries;
it's a 750v DC system if that helps.

 

Nah, that was just a type 3 English Electric (37), Deltics are type 5s
but they're much the same 'idle' at 1000A and run at 2000 - 3000A,
overload at 4000ish (IIRC).

 

As an apprentice I worked for a while on EHT (15Kv to 35Kv)units with
reasonably high current for HUDs and projection TVs for flight
simulators.

It's that soft 'hiss' of tracking on a test bench that would scare me
sh*t less.

After a while you could quietly stand behind some one and mimic the
sound while watching the blood drain from their face (or back of neck
depending on where you were standing.)

 

While adjusting his trousers [1] makes mental note to self not to piss
on the live rail even if I'm not that desperate for a pee ;-)

[1] I was going to say dress, but knowing you lot............

 

Yoikes, won't matter if the sponge is dry then

'Hog