Electrification and hypnosis?

BerkshireBugsy

Hero Member

Posts: 1640

Berkshire Bugsy Jr

Electrification and hypnosis?

« on: May 26, 2016, 21:31:20 »

OK, I know this seems strange but travelling back on the stretch from Didcot to Reading quite a lot of it is cabled and therefore obviously there are a lot of gantries along the way.

This got me thinking - but seriously for once. Is there any risk that the even appearance of these gantries within the drivers field of view could have some negative side effect such as hypnosis?

I know we are by no means the first to be electrified so if there was a problem I'm guessing other areas would have dealt with this before us.


	Logged

JayMac

Data Manager
Hero Member

Posts: 18924

Re: Electrification and hypnosis?

« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2016, 22:14:02 »

I think with decades of driving on overhead electric railways, any negative effects on drivers would have been discovered and studied by now.


	Logged

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

- Sir Terry Pratchett.

stuving

Transport Scholar
Hero Member

Posts: 7173

Re: Electrification and hypnosis?

« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2016, 22:37:41 »

When you drive along a road there are often periodically repeating features in your view - lampposts, dashed white lines, and even vehicles coming the other way. Street lamps at night are even more prominent. But you don't look in a fixed direction, so they don't repeat for long before you shift your view, and that would be true for a train driver too.

You may be thinking about the effect of sunlight through the evenly-spaced trees along a (typically French) road. That effect doesn't depend on your direction of view, so is more plausible. But I don't think OLE^▸ blocks enough light to do that. Also, while that effect is quite widely believed in, scientific study might or might not support it.

And is it really hypnosis? Making you tired, or sleepy, is more like it.


	Logged

Tim

Hero Member

Posts: 2738

Re: Electrification and hypnosis?

« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2016, 09:12:52 »

I may have imagined this, but I thought I heard somewhere that the reason very high speed trains like the Eurostar/TGV^▸ have small central cab windows is to minimise the peripheral view of the trackside rushing by which at high speeds could cause some drivers to feel queasy.

Equally it could just be that it is easier to meet the crash requirements with smaller windows.


	Logged

Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

Pages: [1]

« previous next »