(erielack) Atomic Train - my comments

[gelwood <"gelwood_@_dnaco.net">]

Well after sitting through part 1 of Atomic Train, I will do what my wife
complains about, find faults in the movie.

I thought the open sequence showing train wrecks was in poor taste.  Some the
accidents were not the fault of the railroads.

The almost school bus accident again showed the railroads in poor light.  The
bus driver violated an Ohio State, and probably other state laws, by shifting
on the crossing.  The "problem" with the locomotive was shown as a problem
with the brakes when it fact the "stuck" handle was the throttle.  The two SW
could not have been going very fast, however, with the video speeded up, it
sure looked fast.  At no time, at least I don't remember, did the engineer 
apply the brakes, all the time trying to move the throttle to OFF. Note that
the train never stopped.  Come to think about it, when was the last time you
saw a train stop after hitting a car on TV or in the movies?

The "atomic train" (BCR) started with a full crew of 5, even a caboose. The
train was made up of box cars, flat car, and gondolas.  Notice the hazardous
cargo in 55 gallon drums in the gon, without any bracing or tie downs. Did
you notice the non-roller bearing trucks on some of the cars?

The fire and explosion in the lead engine occurred in the air compressor
section of the engine.  This explosion at made the air line separate between
a couple of cars. I thought that the train went into emergency when the air
line broke.  The explosion knocked out the hydraulic brakes on the
locomotive?  It appears that the throttle remained open causing the train
speed to increase. The crew on the locomotive or in the caboose made no
attempt to set the hand brakes on any of the cars in this short train.

Must be a great MofW crew as they were able to place several piles of sand on
the roadbed in record time. Guess they just happened to have the equipment
and sand available in the middle of the mountains.

The connection of the locomotive set from the following train could be made
until several attempts had been made. Got to make the watching public get
concerned.  After the connection was made, the following engines could not
slow the train and had to break the connection because of too much stress??

The radio between the train and the following engine set didn't work because 
the hero had to direct the engineer, by yelling through the open door on the
short hood of the engine, at speed. I knew the engineer turn the radio to
another frequent but this was after the attempt.

How did our hero manage to open the door of a box car at speed? I guess there
must be a walk way along the top of the sill.  Good catch on the crow bar
too.

After our hero managed to destroy something in the compressor compartment,
the hydraulic brakes worked and the train stopped, until hit from the rear.
While the train was moving slowly, how come the crew didn't get off and place 
something under the wheels.  At this slow speed, a piece of ballast probably
would have stopped the train.

It's a good thing that the weapon is Russian and was under control of "bad" 
company.  I believe that any nuclear weapons have to travel under very tight
control.  Note, nuclear waste and other nuclear material travelling by any
mode within the US moves in special containers.  I have seen movies of the
tests on these containers.  In one, the container was secured to a flat car
behind an RSD-1.  A set of rocket motors were used to get the train set up to
about 50 MPH where it impacted a concrete wall several feet thick.  The
container broke free of chairs and passed completely through the engine.  The
structure characterics of the container were not broken.  I have also seen
movies of truck trailers with one of these container being hit by a train at
speed without breaking.

I can hardly wait until Monday night for part 2.  It appears that the device
is exposed to fire from the hazardous waste and explodes. Anybody that knows
about nuclear weapons knows that a highly structured explosion is required to
set off a nuclear weapon.  The US has had a few device fall from aircraft
involved in accidents and impact the ground without a nuclear explosion.
Note, there is an explosion of but it is not controlled and therefore can not
create a supercritical mass.

George

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