REGISTER

Paul Szacsvay FIRSE

Principal Engineer Signalling R & D

RailCorp NSW

Trevor Moore FIRSE

Signalling Standards Engineer

Australian Rail Track Corp

Track circuits have always been identified as a means of broken rail detection, and will continue to be needed to serve this function even when their train detection functions can be replaced by communications based location methods or non-contact train detection.

The effectiveness of track circuits in detection of broken rails has been the subject of some considerable discussion amongst signalling and track engineers. This paper looks at both sides of this discussion. We hope to provide you with an insight into what risk reduction track circuits can provide and whether this can largely be substituted by improved forms of rail husbandry.