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John Gifford FIRSE, Trevor Moore FIRSE & Joe Borg

Track Circuits have been an essential tool for signal engineers to implement signalling control systems for many years. Although jointless track circuits are available, insulated joints are still required for points layouts. In heavy rail traffic situations these impose a maintenance load and affect reliability. Axle counters provide an alternative methodology for rail vehicle detection without insulated joints.

The paper examines the issues, associated with the selection and design of signalling using axle counters compared to the problems associated with track circuits in heavy haul rail corridors.