Basic Railway Signalling

Introduction
As any train driver will attest, driving a train is easy. The difficult bit is
stopping it. It's easy to get the train going but much more difficult to stop
in the right place and, to do this consistently and keep time, requires skill
and concentration. The reason for this is simple - the adhesion available
for a train with a steel wheel on a steel rail is such that the braking
distance is considerably more than that obtained in a car with rubber tyres
on the average road. The adhesion between a tyre and the road surface
can be measured at over 85%. The UK main line railways calculate their
braking distances on the basis of 8% adhesion, an order of magnitude less.
This sort of calculation is standard across the world.
To use a comparison between road and rail braking, we can look at
someone who wants to stop a car from 70mph. The driver thinks about it
(20m) and then brakes (80m), requiring a total of 100m stopping distance.
Now transfer this process to the cab of a train running at 70 mph. The
driver reaction distance is still 20m but you have to add time for applying
the brake and allowing for it to feed up to the required pressure on the
whole train, which needs another 60m. Then the actual distance for the
train to stop will be another 950m approx., giving a total of 1030m, or
more than a kilometre. This would represent a full service brake
application with no allowances for error or a safety margin. An emergency
brake application at this speed might get the train to a stand in 700m if it's
not raining. This means that a train's braking distance is likely to be an
order of magnitude greater than that of a road vehicle and, for a driver in
an emergency situation, it seems like a million times greater when you are
at the front of a train with the emergency brake fully applied and you know
there is nothing you can do to avoid hitting something in front of you.
The long braking distances required by trains present a problem for
the driver of a manually controlled train. He is unlikely to be able to see
an obstruction or diversion requiring him to reduce the train speed or to
stop. In effect, he is driving “blind”. To overcome this, he (or she) requires
advice in advance of the point where it is necessary to apply the brake.
Railways have developed such a system, which we call signalling.
Traditionally, signals are provided at fixed lineside locations to indicate to
the driver of an approaching train how he should proceed or, possibly, the
limit of his movement authority (LMA). To achieve this, the line is divided
into sections, often called blocks, and a signal is placed at the entrance to
each block to act as a sort of “gate keeper”. The rule is that (normally)
only one train is allowed into a block at any one time.
 Signals

Figure 2 above shows the general arrangement for a signal on a manually

operated railway. It is the practice on many railways to provide overrun
space beyond the signal in the form of a margin, often referred to as an
overlap. This overlap can be a set distance or by separating trains by a
whole block length.
There is a wide variety of fixed signals used by railways around the
world. They may be categorised into two broad groups, “speed signalling”
or “route signalling”. Speed signalling is the most common, where the
indications for the driver represent an instruction to proceed at a speed
depending on the type of train in his charge. Most administrations in
continental Europe and North America have adopted this system. A driver
is shown one or more lights in a specified pattern, which gives him the
authority to proceed (or not) at the speed designated to his train. Thus it is
common for the same indication to allow a passenger train to proceed at,
say, 160km/h, while a freight train is restricted to 60km/h on the same
route.
The route signalling system differs in that the speed limits are
separate from the signalling. They are usually indicated by discrete and
fixed lineside signs. Variations for different types of trains are assumed to
be part of the driver’s knowledge. Drivers are shown proceed indications
for a block or a number of blocks ahead. If a diverging route is set,
additional indications are provided and the driver is expected to adjust the
train speed to comply with the separate lineside signs. This system is
normal UK practice and has been adopted in many overseas countries
where UK railway systems have been installed.
Some administrations use a combination of the two systems, the
French railway SNCF, for example. Regardless of the system adopted, with
manual driving, signal sighting will dictate the braking distances and
therefore the block lengths. As train speeds increase, they require longer
braking distances and therefore longer sighting distances or earlier
warnings of conditions ahead. Very early on in the development of
railways, routes were equipped with intermediate updates of signal
information.

Multi-Aspect Signalling
The division a line into blocks or sections presents a restriction on the
capacity of the railway. The degree of the restriction becomes dependent
on the length of the blocks. Indeed, the ultimate restriction will be the
length of the longest block. On routes where traffic developed to a level
where more and more trains were required, block length became critical.
Capacity could only be increased by reducing block length. However,
shorter blocks will not allow the operation of higher speed trains unless
the signalling is arranged to provide warning of the state of several blocks
ahead. From this requirement, multi-aspect signalling was born. The
purpose of multi-aspect signalling is to allow a mix of trains to operate at
high frequency and varying speeds of the same track. There are various
forms of this type of signalling. One is shown in Fig 5 below.

In the UK, a 4-aspect signalling system is common and allows trains to

operate at speeds of up to 200km/h. Blocks are normally about 1100m in
length. A green aspect allows full speed running, indicating at least three
blocks ahead are clear. A double yellow aspect shows two clear blocks
ahead, while one yellow indicates one clear block ahead. A similar 3-
aspect system, with slower speeds or longer blocks, is also common, using
red, yellow and green aspects. Other railways use similar systems,
including sequences of flashing lights and multiple lights to indicate the
number of blocks free or the required speed limit.
 Routing Systems
When passing through a turnout, movable track elements must be
locked in the proper position, and the train must be protected against
conflicting moves that would interfere with its path. This is effected by
interlocking. The term interlocking comes from the fact that the signals
governing train moves are interlocked with movable track elements and
signals governing conflicting routes. Routes are protected by signals which
cannot show a proceed aspect unless the route over which they can admit
trains is set, locked and proved locked. An interlocking can be controlled
by a manned, local signal cabin, a remote control room or through an
automated computer control programme supervised from the control
room. Signals in route-based systems provide drivers with visual
indications showing the route set up. This assumes that information about
the speed limits on diverging routes (if any) is provided separately, usually
by a fixed sign at the track side. Speed-based systems do not necessarily
provide route indications.
Interlocking is based on the principle that before a train can be
authorised to pass through a point zone by clearing a lineside signal or
issueing cab signal authority, a safe route up to the authority limit is
established. That route must meet the following conditions:
 All points must be properly set and locked.
 All points must be kept locked as long a train has authority to
move on them.
 Conflicting moves must be locked out.
 The route must be protected against inadvertent movements on
converging tracks (flank protection).
 All track sections the train has authority to pass through, must
be clear.
 Junction Operation
The operation of frequent services through a junction (Figure 6)
requires careful timetabling and accurate timekeeping if the planned
throughput is not to be compromised. Each route has to be set and locked
before the train approaches the sighting distance of the signal protecting
the route, otherwise the driver will have to apply the brakes in case he is
required to stop at the junction signal. For a train approaching at
160km/h, the route must be set and locked 82s before arrival. All
conflicting moves will be prevented during this time. To this, the time for
the train to clear the route must be added – about 10s. Assuming an
opposing train movement is required through the junction after the first
train in our example has passed, a second train on the same route can
only pass through the junction 4.5 minutes later.

For urban railways, grade separation of junctions must be the

preferred option. This allows unobstructed throughput for converging
routes and prevents delays in one direction affecting service in the other
direction. Grade separation requires additional construction and land take
but it is essential for the efficient operation of a high frequency metro
service. It is invariably money well spent.
 Enforcement
From the earliest days of railway operation, mistakes by drivers led to
trains passing signals at danger, nowadays known in the UK as SPADs
(Signal Passed At Danger). Some of these incidents resulted in serious
accidents involving the death of staff and passengers. Huge publicity is
always given to train accidents and there was always (and still is) constant
pressure on railway administrations to provide improved safety. Various
schemes to provide some form of enforcement of signal stops were
devised, some more successful than others. Some main line railways use
a warning system in the cab to advise drivers of an adverse signal aspect.
This requires the driver to acknowledge the alarm to prevent a brake
application.
TPWS

The UK uses the Train Protection and Warning System or TPWS. The
idea behind TPWS is that, if a train approaches a stop signal showing a
danger aspect at too high a speed to enable it to stop at the signal, it will
be forced to stop, regardless of any action (or inaction) by the driver. The
equipment is arranged as shown in Figure 8.
For each signal equipped with TPWS, two pairs of electronic loops are
placed between the rails, one pair at the signal itself, the other pair some
200 to 450 metres on the approach side of the signal. Each pair consists
of, first an arming loop and secondly, a trigger loop. The loops are
activated if the signal is showing a stop aspect.

The pair of approach loops first met by the train at 400 to 200 metres
before the signal, are set between 4 and 36 metres apart. When the train
passes over the arming loop, an on-board timer is switched on to detect
the elapsed time while the train passes the distance between the arming
loop and the trigger loop. This time period provides a speed test. If the
test indicates the train is travelling too fast, a full brake application will be
initiated. In case the train passes the speed test successfully at the first
pair of loops but then fails to stop at the signal, the second set of loops at
the signal will cause a brake application. In this case, both loops are
together (Figure 9) so that, if a train passes over them, the time elapsed
will be so short that the brake application will be initiated at any speed.
London Underground and some other metro systems use a mechanical
trainstop device at all stop signals. These cause an emergency brake
application on any train passing the signal at danger.
Think of it as adding or removing a zero from a number. If something
is "an order of magnitude" different, it is roughly 10 times larger or
smaller.