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A railway signal is a visual display device that conveys instructions or provides warning of instructions regarding the driver's authority to proceed. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly. Typically, a signal might inform the Train driver of the speed at which the train may safely proceed or it may instruct the driver to stop.
Under timetable and train order operation, the signals did not directly convey orders to the train crew. Instead, they directed the crew to pick up orders, possibly stopping to do so if the order warranted it.
Signals are used to indicate one or more of the following:
'Running lines' are usually continuously signalled. Each line of a double track railway is normally signalled in one direction only, with all signals facing the same direction on either line. Where bidirectional signalling is installed, signals face in both directions on both tracks (sometimes known as 'reversible working' where lines are not normally used for bidirectional working). Signals are generally not provided for controlling movements within Rail siding or yard areas.
Signals control motion past the point at which the signal stands and into the next section of track. They may also convey information about the state of the next signal to be encountered. Signals are sometimes said to "protect" the points or switches, section of track, etc. that they are ahead of. The term "ahead of" can be confusing, so official UK practice is to use the terms in rear of and in advance of. When a train is waiting at a signal it is "in rear of" that signal and the danger being protected by the signal is "in advance of" the train and signal.
In North American practice, a distinction must be made between absolute signals, which can display a "Stop" (or "Stop and Stay") indication, and permissive signals, which display a "Stop & Proceed" aspect. Furthermore, a permissive signal may be marked as a Grade Signal where a train does not need to physically stop for a "Stop & Proceed" signal, but only decelerate to a speed slow enough to stop short of any obstructions. Interlocking ('controlled') signals are typically absolute, while automatic signals (i.e. those controlled through track occupancy alone, not by a signalman) are usually permissive.
Drivers need to be aware of which signals are automatic. In current British practice for example, automatic signals have a white rectangular plate with a black horizontal line across it. In US practice a permissive signal typically is indicated by the presence of a number plate. In the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, as well as New Zealand, a permissive signal has the lower set of lights offset (usually to the right) from the upper lights; in Victoria and New Zealand, an absolute signal displaying a red or white "A" light is also treated as a permissive signal. Some types of signal display separate permissive and absolute stop aspects. In Germany, the rules which apply to the respective signal are indicated by a vertical plate on the signal's post (Mastschild).
Operating rules normally specify that a signal with an abnormality, such as one with an extinguished lamp or an entirely dark signal, must be interpreted as the most restrictive aspectgenerally "Stop" or "Stop and Proceed".
Semaphore signals were developed in France at the end of the 18th century, before being later adopted by the railways. The first railway semaphore was erected by Charles Hutton Gregory on the London and Croydon Railway (later the Brighton) at New Cross Gate, southeast London, in 1841.Solomon, p. 19 It was similar in form to the optical telegraphs then being replaced on land by the electric telegraph. Gregory's installation was inspected and approved for the Board of Trade by Major-General Charles Pasley. Pasley had invented a system of optical telegraphy through semaphores in 1822 for the British military, and appears to have suggested to Gregory the application of the semaphore to railway signaling.Calvert, J.B. "The Origin of the Railway Semaphore." Railways: History, Signalling, Engineering. 2007-05-04. The semaphore was afterwards rapidly adopted as a fixed signal nearly universally. Disc signals, such as those made by the Hall Signal Company, were sometimes used,Solomon, p. 37 but semaphores could be read at much longer distances. The invention of the electric light, which could be made brighter than and hence visible both by night and day, resulted in the development of position light signals and colour-light signals at the beginning of the 20th century,Solomon, p. 50 which gradually displaced semaphores.Solomon, p. 49 A few remain in modern operations in the United Kingdom.
Mechanical signals may be operated manually, connected to a lever in a signal-box, by electric motors, or hydraulically. The signals are designed to be fail-safe so that if power is lost or a linkage is broken, the arm will move by gravity into the horizontal position.
In the U.S., semaphores were employed as train order signals,Calvert, J.B. "Train Order Signals." Railways: History, Signalling, Engineering. 2004-08-10. with the purpose of indicating to engineers whether they should stop to receive a telegraphed order, and also as simply one form of block signalling.
The signal head is the portion of a colour light signal which displays the aspects. To display a larger number of indications, a single signal might have multiple signal heads. Some systems used a single head coupled with auxiliary lights to modify the basic aspect.
Colour light signals come in two forms. The most prevalent form is the multi-unit type, with separate lights and lenses for each colour, in the manner of a traffic light. Hoods and shields are generally provided to shade the lights from sunlight which could cause false indications.
Searchlight signals were the most often used signal type in the U.S. until recently. In these, a single incandescent light bulb is used in each head, and either an A.C. or direct current relay mechanism is used to move a coloured spectacle (or "roundel") in front of the lamp. In this manner, gravity (fail safe) returns the red roundel into the lamp's optical path. In effect, this mechanism is very similar to the colour light signal that is included in an electrically operated semaphore signal, except that the omission of the semaphore arm allows the roundels to be miniaturized and enclosed in a weatherproof housing.Railway Signal Site. "US&S Searchlight Signal H and H2 Styles." Accessed 2011-09-11. Widely used in the U.S. from World War II onward, searchlight signals have the disadvantage of having moving parts which may be deliberately tampered with. This had led to them becoming less common during the last fifteen to twenty years when vandalism began to render them vulnerable to false indications.
However, in some other countries, such as on the Italian railways (FS) as from the Regolamento Segnali, they are still the standard colour light signal albeit with new installations being as outlined below.
More recently, clusters of LEDs have started to be used in place of the incandescent lamps, reflectors and lenses. These use less power and have a purported working life of ten years, but this may not in reality be the case.
Operating rules generally dictate that a dark signal be interpreted as giving the most restrictive indication it can display (generally "stop" or "stop and proceed"). Many colour light systems have circuitry to detect such failures in lamps or mechanism.
Colour position lights (CPLs) were first installed as a pilot on the Staten Island Railway in New York City, at the time a B&O subsidiary; they were also applied to the Chicago and Alton Railroad when the latter was under B&O control, as well as on the B&O itself. With the disappearance of the B&O into CSX they have been gradually replaced with NORAC color light signals.
For example, in UK practice, if a white "feather" indicator fails, the low speed feather combined with a green light, which is low speed, becomes a green light on its own, which is high speed. A lamp proving relay would detect the reduction in current when more than two lamps are not working in a failed feather indicator, and prevent the green from showing. It can also display an indication on the signaller's panel.
Due to this possibility, most signals are configured to be failsafe.
For example, a flashing aspect can be used to display a less restrictive signal. In this case, if the relay that controls the flashing fails, the signal becomes more restricting. A flashing yellow, in Canada and the United States, is part of an advance clear to stop indication, which means the second signal ahead is stop. A solid yellow means clear to stop, which means the next signal ahead is stop.
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