194805 – Stewart – Power Railway Signalling: Some Observations on English and American Practice

Modern railway signalling covers such a wide field that no single paper can adequately cover the technicalities involved, and this paper has, therefore, been limited to some observations on English and American practice in power signalling.

Railway systems in England and America have had to meet widely different conditions of population density and area, and traffic operating conditions in the two countries have been developed to suit the local conditions.

Railway signalling in each country has been adapted to meet the varying traffic conditions and track layout, whilst retaining the accepted basic principles of safe working.

We get some idea of these differences by comparing the long hauls on single track, with long and heavy trains, so characteristic of much of the mileage on American railways, with the shorter trains and short hauls on multiple track, which constitute the greater portion of English railways.