Locomotive attendant
A train attendants , formerly Beimann called, is an employee of a railway company , which in addition to the driver in the cab of a traction vehicle mitfährt.
function
The train attendant assists the driver with the technical monitoring of the vehicle, the observation of the route , the signals and the train. If the driver suddenly fails while driving, it is his job to bring the train to a stop independently. Today these functions are largely transferred to technical systems in Germany.
history
With the replacement of the steam locomotive by electric and diesel locomotives , former stokers were used for this service . In the 1980s and at least in the early 1990s, there was an operational test "Driving without a motor vehicle attendant on trains with speeds of more than 140 km / h". In 1991 it was extended to trains with speeds of 200 km / h. For speeds over 200 km / h, a traction vehicle attendant was initially required in the driver's cab . This particularly affected ICE traffic . In Germany , the driver usually operates the locomotive alone today. Even ICE trains with a speed of 300 km / h no longer need locomotive attendants. The prerequisite for this is the presence of an effective safety driving circuit (Sifa) , a driving and standstill monitoring device or another device for automatically stopping the vehicle . These devices continuously monitor the driver's ability to work and trigger an emergency brake if he is no longer actively involved.
literature
- Hans-Joachim Kirsche: Take the trigger . In: Lexicon of the Railway. 5th edition, Berlin 1978.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cherry, p. 99.
- ^ Walter Mittmann, Fritz Pätzold, Dieter Reuter, Hermann Richter, Klaus-Dieter Wittenberg: The Third Ordinance to Change the Railway Construction and Operating Regulations (EBO) . In: The Federal Railroad . No. 7-8 , 1991, ISSN 0007-5876 , pp. 759-770 .