Train steering
Train control is a term used in railway operations . This means the automatic setting of routes for trains in modern signal boxes, controlled by the train number and, if necessary, a steering plan .
In conventional operation, the dispatcher has to manually set the routes for each train entering his station. This happens e.g. B. in relay interlockings by operating the start and destination buttons simultaneously on the table or in electronic interlockings by addressing the start and destination of a train route and an acknowledgment button one after the other with a mouse click or an electronic button.
When routing trains, the routes and, if necessary, travel times provided for the various trains are stored in a routing plan. When a train approaches or when the scheduled departure time is reached, the train routing automatically sets the route stored for this train. This provides for the train to travel over a specific station track or, in the case of branching routes, in a specific direction of travel.
The train control should adjust the routes in good time so that the train can travel unhindered. On the other hand, the route should not be set too early because this could possibly hinder other trains and reduce the possibilities for short-term operational decisions (e.g. use of another station track). For the timely setting of the route by the train control, certain trigger points are therefore defined for each signal . After the train number reporting system reports that the train number has passed the kick-off point (usually a previous signal), the kick-off delay time expires, which is calculated according to the scheduled (or, for LZB, current) speed of the train so that the route 15 s before the pass of the train is set at the distant signal . After expiration of the kick-off delay time is performed a Stellbarkeitsprüfung and finally the actuating order of the interlocking. The control order has the same effect as a manual route control order by the dispatcher: If all conditions are met by the interlocking, the route is set, otherwise it is rejected. The avoidance of mutually exclusive routes is therefore still ensured by the signal box and not by the train control. If the adjustability check of the train routing fails or the route is rejected by the signal box (e.g. due to set routes for other trains that are mutually exclusive), the train routing will put the route on hold and the route will be set at a later point in time.
The dispatcher does not have to perform any more operations for train journeys in normal operation, provided the routes in question are included in the train routing and the train routing is switched on. If a train is to use a different track or route that deviates from its stored routing plan, the dispatcher can adapt the routing plan well before the train arrives. As an alternative to this, it is possible to set a different route using conventional direct control, as long as the route set according to the steering plan has not yet been initiated by the train control system.
Train routing can be configured individually for each route in modern electronic interlockings, but for various operational reasons not all routes are often included in the train routing. Exceptions are z. B. regular routes in the direction of single-track routes. If the dispatcher of the neighboring station has to accept a train before driving on the single-track route as part of a train registration call , automatic setting of the route by the train control is not permitted, as the (possibly negative) result of the train registration call would not be taken into account by the train control. In addition, the train routing in modern interlockings can be switched on and off for each signal in order to take account of those operational situations in which the automatic setting of routes is not desired.
A forerunner of modern train control is the self-setting mode with steering number . There is no steering plan with train numbers. Instead, the train number is always preceded by a steering number, which determines the route to be used.
In operation with ETCS , the route trigger can also be generated by the RBC depending on the braking curves and the actual train speed.
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter foot, Dagmar Wander, Patrick Sonderegger, Leif Leopold: Railway safety technology in Swiss tunnels . In: signal + wire . tape 111 , no. December 12 , 2019, ISSN 0037-4997 , p. 44-50 .