TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Automatic braking long a priority for trains, but costs are daunting

1 pointsby pjbrunetabout 10 years ago

1 comment

pjbrunetabout 10 years ago
Forcing trains to slow for turns is not a complex engineering problem, IMO. Here's my safer, low-tech solution that wouldn't cost billions of dollars and wouldn't be vulnerable to hackers. Before the turn, pound a "stake" into the ground. Then add a simple lever under trains that forces them to slow down. When the lever hits the stake, the train is forced to slow. No human intervention required. If you need different speeds for different turns, just position stakes further left or right. 20mph stake slows the train to 20mph, easy. (Extrude the metal enough that it wouldn't be easy to tamper with.) Seems like this billion-dollar wireless solution would be vulnerable to hackers. Personally, I'd feel safer with a mechanical solution.