Um, How many things do we do as electricians every day, that look awfully dangerous to someone who has never done what we do? I have a lot of respect for the high voltage guys up there in a thunderstorm with "just" rubber gloves. I would respectfully submit that the driver of this machine has a similar amount of training and respect for the handling of his job as you, and is using equipment that is just as specialized as yours.
I will garantee that the driver is belted in,and that the cab has a full roll cage and he is wearing restraint and head protection. How far can the machine fall? 14 feet max? Most the driver will get is a headache. In my experience of running rail road related machinery I have never seen a hydralic hose fail suddenly and completely, I have seen them tear, which results in a controllable release of pressure.
Yes there is a way to let the rock out the bottom of the car. (It's a ballast car by the way.) What happens if the wreck we are cleaning up has torn the right of way to one side of the rails. The dump doors just put it on the track, not to one side. The dump doors are designed to fill in between the ties, and the whole train is stuck if you get too much between the trucks and you are left with a bunch of section laborers with shovels.
This way the operator can hoik himself up on the car and put just the right amount of ballast right where it is needed. Less waste less time. There are other machines that can do this job if you have one, side dump dump trucks, side dump cars etc, but they are single use machines, rather than a backhoe that is ruggedized for this one use but still is useful for other projects. Train crews put their trains exactly where they are needed as a matter of course every day, you need one car moved six inches, no problem.
I learn alot from this site, and my quality of electrical work has gone way up from what I have learned, but lets not assume that because other industries do something we don't do, that they are just being stupid.
TW
