Talk:Dead-man's control

Should penalty switch, vigilance control, dead-man's switch and dead-man's control be merged? They are very similar. Andrew pmk 03:16, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

For railway applications, a deadman's control and a vigilance control are two different things and are designed for different purpopses. The deadman's control must remain depressed at all time to keep off emergancy braking. A vigilance control must the depressed periodically, albeit at a pre-programmed interval. A task lined vigilnace control is temporalily overidden by certain control functions. Some V/Cs are also speed sensitive. Tramway applicatione are a different matter. I personaly categorise deadman's controls into the following types, all types must be depressed for the vehicle to be set in motion: Type 1. Track brakes are immediately applied if control is released while the tram is moving. Type 2. If driver releases control while tram is moving, a hooter sounds, followed soon by track brake application, the driver may be required to release the control after a pre-determined time period when the tram stops. Type 3. Must be perodically released and reapplied, if it doesn't happen, a buzzer sounds followed by track brake application within seconds. Also known as a dead-man's vigilance device.