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Do trains stop for people on the tracks?

No, generally they won't. Railcars have the right of way, hence the rails that are already in place.



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Trains have the right-of-way because they cannot quickly stop for a motorist at crossings or for trespassers on the tracks. The average freight train, traveling at 55 MPH, takes anywhere from 1 to 1½ miles to stop.

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Railroad tracks guide the train, acting as the low-friction surface on which the train runs and often transferring the weight of the train to the ground below. The track may also provide electrical power along the third rail, as you'll recall.

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One of the reasons trains need to back up is to the couple and decouple the cars that it pulls. Another good reason is that it is sometimes difficult for the train to turn around. There are of course other reasons. A train will go forward and back when it is occupying a crossing and stops on its tracks.

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Surrounding terrain also can affect sound. For instance, in the instance of a train passes through a corridor of trees, those trees can muffle the sound in much the same way as sound baffles that line the walls of a recording studio.

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Trains do create vibration, and if you live close enough to the tracks, you can probably feel it when the train goes by. However, there is a very large difference between the point at which a human feels vibration and the point at which vibration can cause damage to even the most fragile structures.

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Noise pollution and vibrations are some of the biggest concerns, particularly for people who live within one-third of a mile of railroads or railyards, says Natalia Caldeira Loss Vincens, an expert in public health at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

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What happens if you stand too close to a train? Air between person and the train moves with high velocity due to dragging effect and the air behind person is approximately still.

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This is due to inertia. Inertia is a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or of uniform motion unless acted upon by a net unbalanced external force.

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The middle of the train is by far the safest for persons. The National Transportation Safety Board does not release comprehensive data on where victims were sitting during fatal train accidents, though some details are available in individual investigative reports.

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A train doesn't wait for late passengers or passengers who are not sure where they're going. They only let passengers in who are on board, who booked a ticket, who know they have to be on that train to get to their destination.

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It is absolutely not legal to ride on any part of a freight train without the express permission of the railroad. You would be guilty of trespassing and of theft of service since you would be getting railroad transportation without paying for it.

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As the train moves along thetrack, the result is an oscillating force at each wheel/track contact, and this is transmitted to the ground at each sleeper/ground contact. It's this force that shakes the ground.

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If you touched the live third rail and any one of the others, or to the ground, yes. It's not only at a high voltage, but it's also DC which has the effect on your muscles of clamping on so you can't move. At least AC is at zero Volts every so often... But between the two normal rails probably not.

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You can't outrun a train. And even if you could, you wouldn't hear it coming, as today's trains almost silently reach speeds of 125mph.

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There is very little spare room under many trains, and chances are something will grab you and bundle you up into a disorganised mess of broken limbs. You probably won't die straight away, it'll take a while. Stay off the tracks. Trains are faster, quieter and more deadly than you think.

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One of the primary reasons railroads use distributed power is to increase the pulling power of the trains as the length and weight also increases. By placing additional locomotives in the middle or at the end, the overall pulling power of the multiple locomotives increases, moving the train efficiently and effectively.

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To help the wheels stay on the track their shape is usually slightly conical. This means that the inside of the wheel has a larger circumference than the outside of the wheel. (They also have a flange, or raised edge, on the inner side to prevent the train from falling off the tracks.)

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