West Penn "Orange"

[Fred W. Schneider III]

I doubt that there are any meaningful statistics.  You would certainly need to do a
regression analysis of accidents versus train miles versus automobile miles.  I suspect
it was more a case of it seemed logical to apply zebra stripes to railroad motor cars.

My experience from working on railroads and trolley museums is that many people don't
see because they simply do not look ... like the lady that went through the flashers in
front of me at Arden last month with her eyes looking dead ahead.  I imagine a lot of
the problem can also relate to sleep deprivation, narcolepsy, forms of seizures, and
other medical problems.  As long as human behavior is something less than an exact
science....

]Kenneth Josephson wrote:

> "Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:
>
> > If we learned anything about accidents, I think we know that it is impossible to
> > keep motorists from leaping at trolley cars like lemmings throwing themselves
> > onto beaches.
>
> LA has lowered speed the speed of trains on the Blue Line, installed gates and even
> cameras to record license plates. Yet people continue to challenge the trains. And
> lose.
>
> George Campbell has recorded a number of wrecks on the North Shore Line, a system
> that used crossing gates and flashers at the busiest crossings, but to no avail.
>
> > Now we put daylight running lights on
> > automobiles (the ICC required it on locomotives in 1955).
>
> Now motorcyclists are even harder to see. Should that be "murdercycles"?
>
> >
>
> >  But it remains an
> > American right to drive at high speeds even after we've proven that fatalities
> > increase.  Wars are a travesty.  Auto accidents are acceptable because we choose
> > to kill randomly.
>
> And don't forget the jogger struck by the Drake car a couple of years ago.
>
> >
> >
> > Seems like it is statistically difficult to prove that orange paint reduces
> > accidents from the previous level with green cars at a time when automobile
> > registrations are also increasing dramatically.   I doubt that they could ever
> > prove it worked but they never did go back to green.
>
> Th North Shore Line went back to green during the 1930s, but with the all the
> developement and increasing auto traffic throughout it territory, there wasn't
> likely any fair comparison, even if such statistics exist.
>
> What was PAT's rationale for going to white with black and gold stripes? Are there
> statistics on mainline railroads and the "safety stripes"  some of them used on the
> front of their locomotives? Ken J.