What John Herndon told you was probably accurate; it's unfortunate and yet another hallmark of corporate railroading how this information never seems to come up under an educational follow-up briefing for the rest of us. No significant safety briefing was ever performed for either crew base after the accident.

As for the alerter, this was new enough power that it was a desk-top control stand with the mash button. And so, this being the case, it is painfully obvious that the alerter/penalty brake application did NOT prevent this from happening, as the crew apparently fell asleep and slid through the block. No one can seem to answer for that. As has been previously stated, it takes a lot of time for the alerter/penalty to actually bring a train to a stop, and it has also been made clear for various reasons that alerters can be activated in your sleep...but if everyone was asleep, how is it the Richmond brakeman was awake enough to jump off at the last minute?

See for yourself: [www.flickr.com]

And if everyone was asleep, why wasn't the east man doing authorized speed of 55MPH or more (asleep? might as well speed, too!) instead of the moderately slow speed that it was? If they allowed themselves to doze off, then that is the result of poor craftsmanship. We all know when we start feeling sleepy. And when that happens, that's the time to get up out of the chair, start talking to each other, have a smoke, do whatever it takes to knock that grogginess away. No excuses.

But we'll never know anymore about it other than our own speculation and rumors, because, as usual, no significant safety briefing was ever performed for either crew base after the accident- and none ever will be. I wonder why the BNSF still hasn't given anyone a real post-accident job briefing regarding that crew that got killed in the Coach America suburban last month?

You can disagree about a DS giving a play-by-play, and that's your perogative. I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't live it on a day to day basis and understand how valuable it can be to be able to take quick cat naps when we know we'll be there for at least three, or if we should pull all the way in, drop the trainman off to cut the crossing, or make a slow roll to meet a five car Amtrak. It is a fine idea that people's anticipation can get them in trouble- I agree with you there, but if we really 'proceed on signal indication' there would be a lot more crossings blocked because we pulled all the way down to the red and set 20 pounds, etc. etc. A little communication goes a long way.