A contest between a train and an automobile has the same outcome every time: The bigger, heavier train wins.

With the scheduled arrival of Rail Runner Express commuter trains in Santa Fe just weeks away, local public safety workers anticipate the city's biggest challenge will be from drivers who do not obey signals, signs and street markings at train crossings.

"How often do you see people parked on the tracks? That's what I see happening," said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Gardner as he stood in the Santa Fe Railyard last weekend.

Gardner said the Fire Department has some experience with those kinds of incidents with the Santa Fe Southern excursion trains that have traveled in the city for decades.

The Rail Runner is a different beast. Trains will be more frequent and come at times when there are lots of drivers on the roads. In some areas in Santa Fe County and in the median of Interstate 25 near the city, they will also travel much faster — up to 79 miles per hour.

That's why firefighters gathered Saturday morning in the department's first training to get ready for the commuter service scheduled to begin sometime next month. Over the next week the rest of the department, along with city police and others, will learn about the train's safety features and danger zones. Later, they will have more classroom instruction.

Engineer Clem Harris led a tour that featured warnings about pressurized hoses for air brakes and lights that reach high temperatures.

Harris pointed out how automatic doors can be opened with a tug on a red cord, and seals can be easily removed from either inside or outside several emergency exit windows in each car if doors are blocked.

What happens, asked one firefighter, if they go at it with an ax?

"It's an aluminum skin," said Harris as he brushed his hand along the shiny train exterior. "You guys could get through. But it's a lot faster going through the window."

The 3,000-horsepower locomotives have the capacity to make a pickup look like a flattened can or to practically vaporize a cow at high speeds.

The more likely mishaps, however, will be cracked windshields and dented roofs from drivers who stop in the wrong place, said Stephanie Paiz, a safety coordinator for the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

"What we run into a lot is people will say, 'I don't know what happened. That gate came down and it broke my windshield,' " she told a train car full of firefighters. "It happens a lot."

Each of the 10 times the train intersects with a Santa Fe roadway, workers have installed lighted road signs and "quad gates," which drop down to create a physical barrier between cars and trains.

Santa Fe police are already trying to step up enforcement at railroad crossings, said Officer Michele Williams, who also attended the training Saturday.

"We would rather pull people over for failure to obey signs, rather than having the kind of accidents that are going to happen because people are on the tracks," she said.

Williams said she also anticipates police will be trying to keep tracks clear of pedestrians, especially in areas frequented by the homeless.

While emergency responders are getting ready to work with the train, they are also thinking about getting to work on the train. Many firefighters and police officers for Santa Fe commute from homes in and near Albuquerque.

"I think it will probably be viable," said firefighter Mario Risso, who lives in Rio Rancho. "I have heard they are going to figure out a way to provide transportation between the train stations and the fire stations. It's a really cool idea, and it's good that it's getting to Santa Fe."

TRAIN CROSSING RULES FOR MOTORISTS

• Never stop on the train track or beyond the solid, white "stop line" just before the tracks.

• Do not shift gears while crossing a train track. You could stall your car and not be able to restart it.

• When you see flashing red lights at a train crossing, stop. A train is on its way.

Schedules, stations, routes and fares? More information is available at www.nmrailrunner.com.