Re: Rail safety - video cameras in cabs

["Rod" <comtrain@mpx.com.au>]

> Some might argue that the idea would only be to check that the driver is
> doing his/her job correctly - but no so - it would pick up such things as
> "wrong-side" signal failures and cars intruding onto level crossings. It
> would have been evidence of what was done to cause the Zanthus accident.
As one who has tried, Video cameras are not much good in a dirty loco
environment.
After one return trip to Dimboola when my Sony was brand new, I needed to
have it sent away and cleaned.
It seems that the brake shoe dust and the Diesel fumes were a very bad
mixture, I filmed from the inside of the cab, and on the ground when
stopped, and both ways were Bl's and C's, no Alcos, in sight.
The Video tape and the various electro-mechanical fields could be a problem
as well.
Interior shots and exterior shots don't mix either, unless your camera is
that advanced that it can adjust to the two different light temperatures at
the same time.
All F/V and N.R. main line  locomotives in Victoria are  already fitted with
a loggers that can record 96 different functions, and if the Train
Controller is convinced that the Driver is unconscious or worse, I believe
he can operate an emergency brake and cause the Train to stop. This was once
disabled , but then we had a union [remember the AFULE?] It was disabled
because the train Controller could panic and operate the brakes, whilst the
Driver was desperately trying to regain control, perhaps off Bank Box, by
Dynamic Braking, and or Independent Braking, and trying to pump his brakes
up on the train in order to get a good brake prior to arriving at the low
speed curve approaching B.M. If the train controller then operated the
Emergency brake, the Driver would have no hope of stopping the train. And
anyway, the VC will stop the train if anything happens to a Driver on a
Driver only train.
To complement the Logger, all signalmen, fill out train registers, TC's fill
out graphs, and are electronically logged, phones are all recorded, as are
radio signals...... Most signals and level crossings are logged....There is
plenty of information out there already
Don't think because you don't hear about what is learnt, that it is not
happening. They don't tell us what they find, or at least, they tell us what
they want us to know, nothing more.
Cheers
Rod