Friday, November 30, 2018

Peddling isn't fast enough

/div>

The video was introduced "I like the way he thinks pushing with his feet will make him go faster."

A commenter responded:

He looked like he was in a fairly high gear so pushing with his feet would have the same effect as shifting to a lower gear. Also, at the point he realized the train was there his pedals were pretty much TDC/BDC so it would have been impossible to get any significant acceleration until the crank had turned quite a bit, by which time it would probably have been too late.

Ew, these kids with their internet abbreviations.

TDC/BDC referring to piston engines top dead center / bottom dead center.

4 comments:

Dad Bones said...

If he met that train at TDC he would've been dead. Good thing his timing was advanced a few degrees before TDC.

Lipperman said...

Most Dutch bikes are one-speed, and geared high. That's why he's pushing with his feet - something he might otherwise do to get momentum from a complete stop.

rhhardin said...

That doesn't happen in Viet Nam, where the railroads are single track almost everywhere. There are short bypass sections here and there for one train to park when an opposite travelling train passes.

I've been watching Viet Nam train driver picture logs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Gi7hMdIj4
being a good one, since it collides with a water buffalo around 2:15:0 so it breaks up the journey.

The tracks tend to wind close to houses so you're really there. There are very slow sections where either traffic or track condition is dodgy, and fast sections where the track is good.

Track condition can be either very old track or brand new track requiring crawling speeds. You want to break the new track in before trusting it.

Horn is constantly sounded where the driver remembers there's a grade crossing ahead. There's no W post to remind him to whistle.

rhhardin said...

Incidentally, switchmen and other railside employees are in little houses and are apparently required to stand outside with upraised arm as the train passes. It's universal. Probably if they don't they get reported as missing. That encourages them to be there.