Re: [General] Information about block working

["Ronald BESDANSKY" <ronbest@bigpond.com>]

Eddie (& also Tezza)

Tks for your explanation. Yes, I was always talking about manual block
working using block bells and block instruments. (Have been reading a lot
about the British environment recently - re-read two very good books by
Adrian Vaughan called "Signalman's morning" and "Signalman's twilight" - he
was a signaller in the early sixties on the (G)WR - very anti- diesel and
anti-CTC!! Books were published early 80s - don't know if they're in print
now.)

I would seem, then, that I can accept a train from the box in the rear over
the double line, if the platform road is unoccupied between the home and
starting signals, even though there may be a train approaching on the single
line (I wouldn't necessarily know if there was one approaching, if it was
OTS worked. I would only know that there CAN'T be one approaching if I have
the staff at my end).

Rgds

Ron Besdansky
(Computer system project manager and rail enthusiast)
Ph: +61 (0)2 9413 1136 (0900h - 2300h UT +11h) (Home)
      +61 (0)417 671 541 (0900h - 2300h UT +11 h) (Mobile)

"Eddie Oliver" <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au> wrote in message
3A6590C2.F792CF2C@efs.mq.edu.au">news:3A6590C2.F792CF2C@efs.mq.edu.au...
> Ronald BESDANSKY wrote:
> >
> > When a double-line manual track block  section ends at a 1) a terminal
> > station; or 2) a station where the line becomes single (worked by OTS,
ETS
> > etc), how are trains accepted from the box in the rear? It would seem
that
> > all trains would have to be accepted under the "line clear but station
or
> > junction blocked" regulation. I think that is not normally allowed for
> > passenger trains??
>
> Despite the number of postings answering this question, a couple of key
> issues have been omitted.
>
> Firstly (although someone else DID say this), the term "manual track
> block" is very confusing (and certainly not a valid term in any
> Australian railway). Presumably just "manual block" was meant, but some
> answers referred to other systems of the "track block" variety.
>
> Secondly, there seems to have been an assumption in at least some
> postings that the clearing point for manual block working was always
> based on some distance beyond a home signal. Whilst this was commonly
> true in Britain and sometimes true in Victoria, it was not normal
> practice in NSW, where the clearing point was a designated LOCATION, not
> a designated DISTANCE.
>
> For instance the commonest NSW situation was for the clearing point to
> be the starting signal. However if there were two or more home signals,
> the clearing point would often be the second of these, and so on. Of
> course this clearing point was an appropriate distance beyond the home
> signal.
>
> All this means that the alleged difficulty about terminal stations was
> non-existent. There would typically be an outer home before the first
> home signal actually protecting points or other conflicts; the clearing
> point would be some location inside the outer home signal (perhaps the
> first "real" home signal, although not necessarily so).
>
> Also someone brought accept signals into the discussion. Accept signals
> (an exclusively NSW concept, at least in that terminology) exist in
> automatic or track block areas, not manual block areas. In manual block,
> "acceptance" is done by line clear being given on the block instruments.
>
> Eddie