I think the amber/green lights on the outside of cars respond to brake cylinder pressure rather than brake pipe pressure. When sitting in a station in electric hold the lights will be amber while the brake pipe is back at 110.
They are supposed to which is why when you go to EP Hold, the lights stay amber. The brake pipe is charging back to 110 and the EP magnet valves are holding the air in the brake cylinder. Sometimes the magnet valves let go as soon as the brake valve is put into EP hold. THen you get one car releasing and knocking into the others.
I think it would be better if end doors had sliding windows so trainmen were better able to observe platforms.
NJT already has a rule where T&E employees are not to stick any part of the body outside opening windows. Doors to tend to open by themselves and would take a trainmans head with it. So even with the sliding windows, the NJT rulebook prohibits using them as they are intended.
I was led to believe that the equipment involved was configured in a way that allowed the bypass switches to be in bypass & the seal still be intact.
That was the standard operating procedure of the mechanical department for a long time. Seal the equipment so that when the Engineer inevitably has to go into bypass, he doesn't have to brake the seal. That way, the mech dept doesn't have to come out to reseal the equipment constantly, like they do now.
[/quote]I thought that the engineer was required to check the seals.
That is part of the pre-movement inspection. Of course, not everybody does that. At a glance, the seals can look sealed and actually be broken. I guess that is all up to the Engineer and how far they want to go. I am comfortable with the way I do it.