What does a real life driver do when he/she is behind a slow train?

  • I have a question about what is the right thing to do if you can “feel” that you are behind a slow freighter or a train that stops at all stations.


    1; Always try to reach top line speed so that the line behind you clears faster, but resulting in having to stop/slow much down because of running into many red signals?


    2; Adapt the speed so the signalblocks clear ahead of you. Once you feel you can go faster, then do it? (This requires some intuition ofcourse)

    Ich bin der Musikant mit Taschenrechner in der Hand.

  • In my Case (Freight Train with BR 140/BR151):


    My locomotives are not the newest Types.
    I have to drive gentle. ;)


    Ill reduce the Speed to 60 km/h until there's enough space between them.

  • It depends on the train driver...
    a good train driver knows the line and how to conserve energy.
    a not so good train driver will be speeding up and slowing down a lot wasting tons of energy.

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  • To sum up:
    No rules, but good drivers drive intuitively.


    My instincts was also to adapt the speed, but not being a train driver myself (though i would love to be) i wondered if there were rules concerning this.

    Ich bin der Musikant mit Taschenrechner in der Hand.

  • There are indeed some guidelines for saving energy in those situations, at least if you are learning at DB Regio or DB Fernverkehr. Those guidelines are written in the modules EX 8 and EX 9. There is a special simulation training too, where the instructor teaches some ways to save energy.

    #include <KlassischerGruß>
    Cirno, Techteam der Railomanie, Fachtrainer Tf bei DB Fernverkehr und selbstständig als Technical Designer bei DTG