Bad TV Technology: NCIS: LA and Trains

[rono_60103]

The main action sequence of the episode of NCIS: Los Angles that first aired on November 5, 2013 featured a train - one engine and two cars each containing two tanks of chlorine gas.  As a moderate rail-fan with an incomplete knowledge of rail details, I think I spotted at least three major flaws - two of which might have (ahem.) derailed the plot

Comments

[kevin_standlee]

Pretty much right on all counts. The person driving the train (usually called the engineer in the USA) doesn't actually control where the train goes - the dispatcher running the switches remotely does so. (At least in the LA Metro area, most or all main line switches are controlled by a dispatcher. Only industrial sidings are manually operated. It is generally possible to defeat remote switches manually, but you have to stop the train, unlock, and manually throw a power switch, which sort of defeats any plan of driving your train at speed into LAUPT