Missed this post when it happened.bill_g wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 10:07 am Technically anyone can easily stop a train by standing in the tracks. It's pretty much guaranteed to happen. Nobody is saying you will survive the encounter.
FRA rules governing the railroads require the train stop after striking someone or something in the alignment (IE: tracks). CFR 49 part 225 explains some of it.
But I just wanted to insert my two cents (you guys still got cents? Aussieland did away with them years ago).
Last year we took the train from Sydney to Perth (the Indian-Pacific) - great trip. The only fly in the ointment was when we were moving through the outer western Sydney suburbs, some individual decided the Indian-Pacific was the ideal suicide device and stepped out in front of our train.
So, yes, that absolutely does stop the train. We were stopped there for something approaching 3 hours (IIRC) while the Police did their thing, the railway safety folks did their thing, the ambulance folks did their thing, the equipment maintenance cleanup crew did their thing, and the on-duty crew was debriefed and replaced by a new crew that was rounded up from wherever they were in Sydney. The on-duty crew is required, by law, to attend counselling after such an incident.
Once we got going, we got to Broken Hill at just about exactly when we were supposed to be leaving Broken Hill, so we missed the excursions that were planned (a tour of the historic town by drag queens!).