Eli5: The train is on a track that determines where it will go, so what does the Engineer do?
In: Technology
Makes sure the equipment on the train, like the engines, stays running in good condition. Also, control the speed, and communicate with dispatch.
You still need someone to control when to start and stop and how fast to go.
Just because there is no steering wheel doesn’t mean there is no equivalent to a gas or brake pedal.
Makes sure it stays on those tracks. If something goes wrong, their actions may prevent it from derailing. Otherwise, just like everyone else said. Make train go, make train stop.
The engineer makes it go. There’s more to a train than a lever that makes it go and stop, you know?
You want a train running down the track with no one in control ?
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For the perfect visual answer to this question go watch the Denzel Washington and Chris Pine thriller, “Unstoppable”. The movie is not Hollywood fiction as it is based on a real life incident that occurred in Ohio 9 years prior, where the operator activated the wrong setting while he climbed out to correct a misaligned switch in the railyard.
The result was a 65 mile, unmanned journey that ran through anything it’s path.
In the future, I am sure technology can be developed to have AI systems control the train, but I imagine there will always be a manned presence on the train due to the events of the film. If the AI or computer were to fail for any reason, human intervention would be necessary.
The engineer controls the throttle and brake on the train as well as things like the horn, bell, sanding, communication systems, etc. So for example if someone runs out in front of the train the engineer can cut the throttle, apply the brakes, sound the horn, etc.
In addition to this when something goes wrong, which is actually quite common on trains, the engineer can help fix the problem manually so that they can still be on schedule and not block the tracks for other trains. This is also why even freight trains have a train crew of two, an engineer and a conductor. It allows the conductor to go back and fix the issue with the train while the engineer is with the locomotive to make sure it is safe and to move it when the conductor needs. In some parts of the world trains do run with a single crew member, the engineer. But this requires a lot of maintenance and inception so that things rarely go wrong. There are also a couple of rail lines in the world that only have a conductor and no engineer. But this requires a rail line that is protected so nobody can get onto the tracks at any point, a signalling system that can tell the train exactly where it is and not just to the closest signal block, and a train automation system that is able to drive the train itself safely. And they still need controls so that the conductor can control the locomotive when needed.
The subway in my city is automatic. It s really weird to seat in the front car and being able to observe the track in front of you.
but i guess there is still a remote driver managing the network.
You need to understand that the weight of the train is massive. Therefore speeding and slowing it down is a massive task too. It is quite a big task while going level but when you go uphill or downhill it becomes a stressful thing very fast. If you accidentally stop while going uphill you may have to go down all the way to try again. It might become impossible to run the train from where it stopped. You have to control your speed on going downhill to not overspeed the train while not heating up the braking equipment or running out of compressed air. Also there can be malfunctions on the trains systems that can need manual intervention. For example if a compressed air line between two carriage is broken for any reason the train would do a complete emergency stop and would release the brakes until air pressure is up again.
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