SAFETY THROUGH TRAINING--A COMPUTERIZED LOCOMOTIVE AND TRAIN SIMULATOR

Safety is a major concern not only of everyone in the railroad industry in general, but of those of us responsible for the training of locomotive engineers in particular. Here, as in the acquisition of most skills, the familiar adage 'practice makes perfect' applies. For many decades, locomotive engineers acquired this practice by the familiar on-the-job training (OJT) method. The fireman or prospective locomotive engineer spent years following the procedure practiced by the engineer on numerous runs, perhaps even encountering an occasional emergency. A long period of OJT was necessary before the trainee became a qualified locomotive engineer. Recent advances in simulation technology, including the advent of high performance, low cost mini-computers, have permitted the design of simulators which can subject the trainee to a 'Real World' environment in a training simulator. Through sophisticated mathematical modeling techniques, it is now possible to generate all significant environmental cues with a high degree of fidelity, thereby subjecting the trainee to a synthetically generated and accurately controllable 'Total Environment'.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was recommended by the IEEE Land Transportation Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society for presentation at the 1973 Joint ASME/IEEE Railroad Conference, St. Louis, Mo., April 11-12, 1973. The price is $1.35 for members.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

  3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5997
• Authors:
  • Hazen, P L
  • Booth, W C
• Publication Date: 1973-2

Media Info

• Features: Figures;
• Pagination: 6 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Locomotive engineers; Railroad simulators; Training
• Old TRIS Terms: Enginemen training
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Education and Training; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00044309
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Paper C73929-7-IA
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 15 1976 12:00AM