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Wayne McDonald BE (Elec), FIRSE Siemens Rail Automation Australian Railway signalling has relied on tried and proven track circuits of all technologies for train vacancy detection. Signal Engineers and maintainers assimilated the resolution of the traps and pitfalls through procedures, the school of hard knocks, and mentoring from the industry die-hards. The corporate experience and knowledge has resulted in continued issues being addressed or accepted to the extent that they are invisible.. Enter axle counters. They are not, as some have suggested, the panacea for all train detection ills. While they are immune to ballast conductance, the vagaries of wheel-rail impedance and while they eliminate bonding restrictions they also introduce a whole new set of problems for the uninitiated (gotchas) that require new understanding, new techniques and the application of investigatory skills to resolve. This paper broad brushes the issues and utilises two case studies, on two different axle counters, to introduce causes of under and over counts and demonstrate a scientific approach to addressing the problems when axles just don’t count properly.
Frank Heibel PhD MSc (Hon) MIEAust CPEng FIRSE Doc Frank Training and Consulting The mixed operation of different railways with diverging operational characteristics has always been a challenge for the signalling industry. Conventional signalling, with optical lineside signals and fixed block sections defined by track circuits or axle counters, allows for basic levels of signalling interoperability. But things get more complicated when introducing additional safety systems such as Automatic Train Protection (ATP), or wider performance enhancements via Automatic Train Control (ATC), as fitted and unfitted trains will require very different operational handling. The next level of complexity will be added as metropolitan railways develop into high capacity metro-style operations, utilising in-cab signalling without lineside signals and sometimes even without the need for trackside train detection. The most popular technology example for such high performance signalling is Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) with moving block principles. The operational gap between high performance metro railways and conventional regional rail services into city centres becomes increasingly bigger and calls for enhancements to the regional services to avoid that performance gains from in-cab signalling are undone by mixed traffic requirements on the same rail corridor. This paper will investigate options for bridging the gap between metro and regional rail services to improve safety and performance for both transport modes, using Melbourne’s Cranbourne-Pakenham Rail Corridor as case study.
R.G. Cumming FIRSE Brisbae Queensland Recruitment into the tradesman level is generally by apprenticeship. Retirement and resignation losses are covered by planned replacement through apprenticeship and only extraordinary losses are filled by recruitmen from outside industry. The fact that both recruitment methods are use in use necessitates training procedures to cover each requirement, and as this area is to be the topic of my detail presentation, I will not expand on it at this time.
Article from the Journal of the Institute of Transport
D. Walsh Queensland Railways Queensland Railways Officers have on a number of occasions in the past investigated available options which would enhance the present train control systems. These options have been examined particularly in regard to reducing the risk associated with driver error which has been found to be the primary cause of many train accidents. Much of the scope for human error which existed in the old fashioned signal boxes has been all but eliminated by technology in modern power signal boxes and now modern technology is being extended to assist the train driver. One of these options was a system of Automatic Train Control (A.T.C.) equipment developed in Sweden and rapidly being adopted by Railway Organisations World Wide. This system is developed to the point where designs are formulated and specifications produced. Queensland Railways' current Main Line Electrification Project includes works associated with the immunisation and resignalling of the main North Coast Line from Caboolture to Rockhampton and Cabinet has given approval to the installation of A.T.C. equipment on the main North Coast Line in association with current signalling contracts.
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