North American and continental European signalling

Ask a real train driver or fireman questions about how engines work, railways operate or anything else. If we do not know the answer, we will find out!
Post Reply
User avatar
John Ashworth
Site Admin
Posts: 23606
Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Contact:

North American and continental European signalling

Post by John Ashworth »

I have to confess myself completely ignorant of signalling systems in north America and continental Europe. I get the sense that they are different from the UK system (which has basically spread itself to southern and eastern Africa and many other parts of the world which suffered under British colonial influence). Am I right in thinking that they have signals indicating speed, rather than the British system where each signal that is not at danger usually tells you something about the signal ahead?

I tried a quick Google but didn't get the right keywords. Any hints from our members in those regions?
Image
User avatar
John Ashworth
Site Admin
Posts: 23606
Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Contact:

Re: US and continental European signalling

Post by John Ashworth »

OK, in some ways I've answered my own question by finding the right keywords to get some sensible feedback from Google. But I'd still be interested to hear from those who have practical experience of north American and continental European signalling systems how they differ from the British variety.

Here are a few resources for France:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_railway_signalling

http://www.sh1.org/sncf/index.htm

http://www.carreweb.fr/signalisation_en.html

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/french.htm

And more generally across Europe:

http://www.carreweb.fr/european-railway ... ng_en.html
Image
User avatar
John Ashworth
Site Admin
Posts: 23606
Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Contact:

Re: US and continental European signalling

Post by John Ashworth »

And for the USA.

Wikipedia says:
The US and Canada departed from UK practice wherein a semaphore blade is devoted to each route (Route Signaling). North American practice is to group routes by speeds and use a single blade for, say, "medium speed" regardless of the number of routes involved (Speed Signaling).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Amer ... _signaling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Amer ... ad_signals

http://www.lundsten.dk/us_signaling/index.html
Image
Ian Roberts
Posts: 196
Joined: 24 Feb 2009, 16:42
Location: Sugar Land Texas

Re: US and continental European signalling

Post by Ian Roberts »

We have been having an interesting discussion on the British Railways Yahoo group in the past few weeks discussing signalling and operating methods in North America and UK.
Note always use North America not America/USA as they upset our friends in Canada.

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/BritishRailways/
Ian
User avatar
John Ashworth
Site Admin
Posts: 23606
Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Contact:

Re: North American and continental European signalling

Post by John Ashworth »

Thanks for the link, Ian. And I've now edited this thread title to reflect those sensitivities.
Image
User avatar
Andreas Umnus
Posts: 479
Joined: 06 Jun 2008, 00:38
Location: Lingen (Ems), Germany

Re: North American and continental European signalling

Post by Andreas Umnus »

Interesting John.
I was just searching for German signals. I think I found a nice page. Like it is in Germany, most pages in German.
The original link is: Signalkunde
and by using Google translater it is this link: Signalkunde (English)

The page explains the German signals very well.

I think somewhere I've got still the link for Danish signals. Must search for it....
User avatar
John Ashworth
Site Admin
Posts: 23606
Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Contact:

Re: North American and continental European signalling

Post by John Ashworth »

Thanks, Andreas. Very interesting.
Image
User avatar
Andreas Umnus
Posts: 479
Joined: 06 Jun 2008, 00:38
Location: Lingen (Ems), Germany

Re: North American and continental European signalling

Post by Andreas Umnus »

Oh, it needed a long time to find the link about the Danish signal system.

Here is the link: Danish signal description
Post Reply

Return to “Railway Operations - ask a question about how railways work..”