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Discussion on: I used to be an engineer on the railroad, now I engineer software, Ask Me Anything!

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theringleman profile image
Sam Ringleman

Hahaha I love it!

As far as the most interesting part, for me was controlling your slack.

There is a certain amount of room between couplers on cars. This is extremely minor between two cars. But when you have 120 cars on your train the effect is insane. If you don't brake right, or say you brake in the wrong spot, like in the middle of a hill, you can very easily break your train in two. Meaning a coupler broke most of the time.

This in turn means you need to learn how to utilizes your brakes properly. There are three different braking systems on a train. And each one is there for a different reason, the trains slack responds differently based on each one of these systems.

It is a feeling that people cannot imaging going downhill on a fully loaded train. You will honestly feel the rear end of the train come over the hill and shove you. Sometimes if you are not careful, really really hard. I have ridden with others and had my face slammed into the windshield on a couple occasions. Those are not fun trips, because the engineer is not paying attention.

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vuild profile image
Vuild

πŸ”₯That is interesting.

"What was your worst engineering mistake?"

"I broke a 120 car train in two".

You will slam your own head into the glass in tech at least.

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theringleman profile image
Sam Ringleman

Oh yeah... I have.

And it has been entirely because of my own stupidity... lol