A word of advice for stopping the trains

Here, below, you will find some directions and practical advice with regard to an intervention against trains that transport war materials on the national railroad networks. They are a serious of messages circulated – among so many – on the Italy-Indymedia forum, the aims of which are certainly not revolutionary, and yet it is interesting to note how even among frequenters of such a tool of communication, not all are worried about saving the good democratic name of the site itself anf some decidedly put themselves beyond certain political logic. We have removed the signatures and numerous parts of little interest from the messages. We have kept the title and the date on which they appeared on the forum.

A word of advice for stopping the trains

February 22, 2003 at 10:20 PM

So then the young people with partisan grandparents who advise stopping the trains outside the stations are right. The problem is that along the line if the engineers don’t see you, it leaves the dead behind. It is necessary to start up the automatic block that changes the signal to red. You should manage this by connecting the two tracks together with iron. The system read the situation as if there were a train and the red signal start flashing. At least I think so. I am a ticket collector. But it would be easy to get confirmation from any railroad worker the is interested in the Central Apparatus.

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Or else…

February 22, 2003 at 10:24 PM

Or else on the side tracks, it functions the same.

Another railroad worker.

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Block train

February 22, 2003 at 11:17 PM

The ticket taker is right… I am an engineer, about five minutes before passage the two rails are joined with a piece of iron. The train is forced to stop at the red signal. Make different blockades about every 1200 meters downstream from the train…

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Method

February 23, 2003 at 12:19 AM

Another more dangerous method is that of planting a metal post in the ground, linked by a metal cord wit a diameter of couple centimeters at least. Throw the cord over the train cables in a way that will short-circuit them. ATTENTION: when the cable is thrown, one must no longer touch it, or one incurs the risk of being electrocuted. Good luck.

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Partisan Grandpa

February 23, 2003 at 12:20 AM

Note that this and other unseful information about how to stop trains are explained quite well on the pages of various German green activist sites that have played with the trains of radioactive waste for some time… censored in Germany, they have found hospitality on Dutch and similar sites.

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Grease?

February 23, 2003 at 01:09 PM

Remember the film “The Emperor of the North”? There to slow down the trains hauled by steam they greased the tracks with fat for a distance of a dozen or more meters. Perhaps it can function for distances on rising ground, maybe greasing various dozen meter stretches.

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3000 volts!

February 23, 2003 at 06:50 PM

I am an Italian Railroad worker and find the idea of short-circuiting the tracks that lack the signal posts in mass, but the post planted in the ground is much too dangerous and I advise anyone against using it. The 3000 volts don’t forgive; they create a voltaic arc about half a meter in radius from the cable.

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Pulling the brake

February 23, 2003 at 10:09 PM

If you can’t directly block a train, perhaps the best thin is to create a bottleneck on the line each blocking the other; perhaps a passenger train in which it is possible to pull the emergency break. It is enough just ot know the precise hours of the weapons convoys, having the fortune that it travels a short distance from a passenger train and knowing for how much time it is possible to to keep it blocked in this way.

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Without title

February 24, 2003 at 10:57 AM

The piece of iron in the middle of the tracks could be removed in a minute, but if one put a very tiny wet iron filings one could short-circuit the tracks for some distance. Difficulties thinking of playing with the electrified line, it would become far too dangerous.

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Watch out!

February 24, 2003 at 11:10 AM

Watch out, young people, with 3000 volts in the Aerial Electric Line IT’S NO JOKE! In fact if you throw the wire, hooking the FS line, and then link it to small stake, DEATH IS ASSURED. It is risky, in so far as if the operation goes well, there would still be the risk of ELECTRICAL ARC! One dies with this little game. I advise you not to do this. I embrace you.

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Don’t kill yourself!

February 24, 2003 at 04:45 PM

Young people, I, an old former railroad worker, am also mobilizing myself to attempt to slow down the path of the war, even stopping trains, but I recommend, DON’T KILL YOURSELVES! Unfortunately, in may years on the railroad, I have seen may people and railway workers killed by trains and electrocuted by high tension wires. Linking the rail together with copper wire is better than with an iron one, but it requires a large wire, on the railroad they use them from 16mm. If you put the ciooer in contact with the rails where it is rusted, contact is not made, the train does not stop and you will be killed. The railroad mechanisms have two great magnets at the extremities to apply above the rail where it leans against the wheel or small vices that get quite narrow after having removed the rust. Furthermore, many lines, especially the less modern ones, don’t have these available and it is perfectly useless to link the rails together. The trains stop badly, they are massive. Remember that normally a train requires 1000 meters in order to stop, 500 if one brakes with the express train, but you risk making all the passengers fall over. The safest thing is get to warn the station chief that a group of people is occupying the tracks and to go there after you are sure that he has understood. Above all, don’t ever try to touch the high tension wires. Those overhead have 3000 volts and they don’t forgive.

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Stop that train

February 24, 2003 at 06:46 PM

Dear railway workers, better info please. I have done a test but the cable or metallic bar that links the two rails has not functioned; do they have to be placed at a precise spot on the tracks, if so, where? E.g., near to a signal? Where there is a minimum time for closing the contact? Did I remove the cable to quickly? Doesn’t it go off immediately? However, I know for certain that the thing with the grease works, but we are talking of 200 meters if we are in flat country and it is far too toilsome. Good sabotage to all.

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Pay attention to the signals!

February 24, 2003 at 06:53 PM

A large cable that is connected well is requires: it needs to simulate the connection between the two rails established by the wheels of the train carriage and be the axle that unites them. The contact surfaces must be sufficiently wide. The crocodile clips for recharging car batteries would not be able to offer a sufficient contact surface: squash them in order to increase the contact surface.

The signal don’t go off instantaneously, obviously it is possible that there would be a train on one stretch and another that follows it at kilometers of distance.

The MINIMUM distance for the start-up of the emergency RED signal is equal to or greater than the braking distance for safety, 1200 meters.

Which is why you should verify that there is a signal placed at least a couple of kilometers up-stream of the link.

Remember that on the railroad lines at double tracks English traffic is in force, in other words, the forward advance is the opposite of that which we usually use on the streets.

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How to stop those trains

February 24, 2003 at 09:22 PM

I am taking up the advise of the ticket-taker again that suggested electrically linking (making a bridge) the two rails in order to turn on the red signal and to send the automatic exchange every electric locomotive has on board the alarm. This system functions in lines of double tracks, but not on secondary lines. I add that once stopped the train needs to open one of the red taps that are found on the butt-ends of the cars, even of the very last in line in order to definitively brake itself. Once the air is let out, the train is brakes and no longer moves. It is necessary to block it open (to compress and turn the bottom in such a way that no one closes it in order to make the train brake, or it is broken once opened or introduce trash in such a way as to block it. Open the red tap in most parts of the train paying attention not to fall between cars. Don’t ever try to make the high tension wire discharge into the earth; with 3000 volts, don’t even joke about it; you would be left dead 100%. If you make the electrical bridge on secondary lines, it is necessary to do it only at the stations with more tracks, in such a case, the entry signal of the station will remain red, if the train is already running through the station, nothing will happen. On principal lines (Vi-Vr) if the train is in transit, it would have to be stopped immediately except unless this type of alarm is excluded, but that would be illegal. The signal is regulated however at the red light. In conclusion I add that a little discomfort for a few train travelers is nothing in the face of the families destroyed by allied smart bombs.

Such information, beyond that on various internet sites dedicated to the railroad world can be drawn out by chatting with any railroad workers.

Good job!

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Emergency Brakes

February 24, 2003 at 11:19 PM

Pay attention to playing with passenger trains. Pulling the emergency brake means causing a sudden stop of the train that could provoke the potential falling of people many of whom stand in the train and also the fall of luggage and objects that might hit someone on the head.

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Home-made smoke-screens

February 25, 2003 at 11:59 PM

For anyone who wants to make a very powerful and economical smoke-screen, here is the recipe:

1 hectogram (3.527 oz) of saltpeter (disinfectant for slaughtering pigs)+ 1 hectogram of sugar; crush in thorough manner, mix ad put in a paper bag; when lit it burns thus to use and extension or to leave on the ground.