Do trains have cruise control?

Question

I know old trains did not, but what about modern diesel or electric trains freight or passenger trains?

Answer 1

no

and yes

not any of the freight trains I have ever been on, or passenger trains in the US.

For very slow purposes in a switch yard or loading dock there is a "pacesetter" that will maintain a speed, usually less than 5 MPH.



I was allowed to ride the cab on a Eurostar in Italy a few years back and they had a type of cruise control, the engineer would set a dial at the desired speed and the locomotive applied brakes or power to maintain that speed.

At least that is what I think he was trying to tell me, there was a bit of a language barrier.

Answer 2

The Engineer is the one operating the train. There's no cruise control because every train handles differently. Weight and resistance means the Engineer prepares to ascend a familiar hill differently than he did the time before. There are track conditions to be aware of that change all the time. There are stops to make where cars must be picked up and dropped off. Every trip means making lots of decisions, and train handling comes from how each train responds to the forces of power, gravity, and braking. So cruise control wouldn't work. And when compared to the Conductor, I think the Engineer has the easier job. The Conductor is responsible for the pre-train paper work, the en-route paperwork, and the opposite terminal paper work. There's always a mountain of paper work. In addition, he does the time sheet, handles most of the radio communications, plans switching moves so must know exactly what cars are where in the train, and is responsible for placing certain cars at various industries which involves being on the ground to carry out these tasks. He must be able to multi-task in a dimension and perspective most people couldn't imagine. The Engineer just sits in the cab and doesn't care what the weather is doing. But we all go through it. 95 percent of all Engineers were Conductors first.

Answer 3

Some do and some don't. The trains I drive certainly don't.



However, some of the more modern trains in the UK have a speed select system. You set the dial to your desired maximum speed, open the taps and then let the train do the rest. However, the driver does still have control over the train and how hard it accelerates.



It's a useful system, but it has been known to catch out unwary drivers. One of my instructors used to drive trains with speed select but got clocked for speeding through a temporary speed restriction because he'd forgotten to reset the dial to the correct speed. He'd just opened the power controller as normal and assumed that everything would all be fine. Before he knew what was happening he was through a 20mph restriction at 70mph.



There is also a great story of a new driver in SE London. He was having huge problems with his train because the damn thing wouldn't go over 5mph. He'd been crawling along for ages accruing an enormous delay and disrupting a large part of the network, so he'd asked for the fitter to meet the train at a certain location. When he got there, the fitter strolled into the cab and, without saying so much as a word, turned the speed select dial around from "shunt" to the train's maximum speed of 75mph and strolled back out again. The train ran faultlessly after that.

Answer 4

i work at csx railroad. trains do not have pedals so there is no cruise control. trains do cruise but is operated by a reverser and throttle. in order for the train to move you have to set the reverser in forward and allow the train to build pressure to release the brakes which could take a while depending on the train lenth. (cannot execced 10,000 feet) when the train starts to move the engineer sets the throttle up to notch 1 and keep advancing untill the train is at a set speed so therefore it is cruising along untill he wants to speed up or slow down also there is a knob called an alerter which beeps every 25 seconds and if the engineer doesnt press the button in time the train will go into emergency to keep it from causing an accident since the speed is set. so in a way it's does keep speed without the engineers help. hope that helped.

Answer 5

No, American locomotives don't have cruise control.They do have a slow speed control that they use in hump yard switching.I did have a BNSF unit that the slow speed control could be set to 40 mph but most have a top setting of 10mph i think.We never use them on mainline freight service.As for Sam P's answer i'm not familiar with any hourly safety checks that have to be done.And i haven't seen any deadman pedals on an engine for years.And we don't have to mantain pressure on the throttle.It has 8 notches for power and it stays in whatever notch we have it in.We do have alerters that have to be reset which can be done several different ways or a penalty brake application will occur.

Answer 6

In general (at least in Europe and Asia) modern locomotives and E/D-MUs do have a kind of cruise control. The engineer typically has two levers, one for controlling acceleration or nominal speed and one for controlling the tractive effort (see e.g. http://www.tfzf.de/1216fst.jpg or http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:AFB_Vsoll-Steller.jpg ). The locomotives electronics try to cruise at the nominal speed and not exceed the maximum tractive effort. In german this is called AFB ("Automatische Fahr- und Bremssteuerung", automatic cruise and brake control).



Depending on trackside equipment (a type of cab signalling that is able to transmit nominal speed is required) the train can operate fully automatic: the driver sets the trains nominal speed to maximum and the traction lever to a reasonable value, together with the cab signalling (which transmits the maximum allowed speed for the current section of track) the engine now knows exactly how fast it can go (the lower nominal speed 'wins') and will start to accelerate the train at the maximum possible rate determined by the tractive-effort-lever.

Of course the driver is still required to operate the "dead man's switch" to prove his alertness. And he/she can of course operate the brakes at any time.

Answer 7

Modern trains have on-board computers which will allow the train to travel at the optimum speed given track conditions, load, etc.



Some years ago I remember being shown an electric train in Germany which had this system and I was amazed, as it was far in advance of anything we had in the UK at the time.



Stephan W. explains it better than I can!

Answer 8

no train is aloud to be on cruise control, the engineer must at all times have pressure on the throttle or it will stop. It was a common practice to place a lunch pail on the foot throttle a few years ago until a major accident happened in canada.

now there are 3 different safety checks that must be done manually every hour to ensure the train is under control.

Answer 9

THE THROTTLE CONTROL STICK SETS AT THE POSITION THE ENGINEER PUTS IT IS. IT IS NOT SPRING LOADED THAT I'VE EVER SEEN. LIKE THE OLD SHIP TYPE THROTTLES. ONCE ITS SET, IT DOESN'T MOVE UNLESS ITS MOVED BY THE OPERATOR.

I HAVE SEEN A "FAIL-SAFE" ON DIFFERENT TYPE OF LARGE EQUIPMENT THAT WILL DECREASE THE THROTLE BY COMPUTER DEMAND.. ON A TRAIN, I THINK ITS STILL A MANUAL THROTTLE . SO I'DE SAY YES-IT WOUD BE A TYPE OF CRUISE CONTROL.



WOW !! CANT ARGUE WITH A PRO ON THIS ONE !! RANGO LOOKS LIKE HE'S THE PRO HERE ! I WAS TAKING AN EDUCATED GUESS SINCE I'VE ONLY BEEN ON 4 TRAINS AND TAKEN A QUICK TOUR OR THE LOCOMOTIVE... GOOD JOB..

I WAS NOT TOO FAR OFF THOUGH.. .

Answer 10

Only when ascending grade.



Throttle eight is all ya can do, so ya puts yer feet up till the top o' the hill... or for 12 hours, which ever happens first.

Answer 11

Amtrak's P42's do have a cruise control setting, or at least did when they came out

Answer 12

Of course.