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Train Signal failures



E

essbee

New member
Jan 5, 2005
3,656
Please help me understand.

25 minute journey yesterday - took 1.5 hours. Signal failure between
London Bridge and Charing Cross. *** ****'s sake

So, in the last 50 years we have:

1. Put a man on the moon (allegedly)
2. Started to find treatments for some of the
worst diseases known to mankind
3. Built a computer so powerful it can beat a Grandmaster
at chess.

Yet we can't get a relatively simple piece of railway equipment
to work reliably. Or am I being very naive here? :censored:

Please help.
 




British Bulldog

British Bulldog

The great escape
Feb 6, 2006
10,893
But even spacecraft, medical science and computers go wrong from time to time.
 




Herr Tubthumper

Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
59,465
The Fatherland








deletebeepbeepbeep

deletebeepbeepbeep

Well-known member
May 12, 2009
20,947
I think pretty much every journey I've taken in the last two weeks has been delayed for some reason or another, yesterday signalling issues at Haywards Heath, today signalling issues at Purley.
 






beorhthelm

beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
35,287
essbee said:
But not on the scale of train signalling equipment (i.e. a daily basis)
Click to expand...

i rather think scale is the heart of the matter. each of those things you list cost billions entirely focused on one event. the rail signals are thousands of miles of cables, and thousands of electrical components, some very old, left out in the elements. if we ripped it all up and started again (like some nations had to in the 1940s), you might well find its problem free, but as it is, its patched upon rewires upon fixes upon old cruft.
 


Pinkie Brown

Pinkie Brown

I'll look after the skirt
Sep 5, 2007
3,539
Neues Zeitalter DDR
essbee said:
Please help me understand.

25 minute journey yesterday - took 1.5 hours. Signal failure between
London Bridge and Charing Cross. *** ****'s sake

So, in the last 50 years we have:

1. Put a man on the moon (allegedly)
2. Started to find treatments for some of the
worst diseases known to mankind
3. Built a computer so powerful it can beat a Grandmaster
at chess.

Yet we can't get a relatively simple piece of railway equipment
to work reliably. Or am I being very naive here? :censored:

Please help.
Click to expand...

I was stuck in that chaos too.

I'm no expert, but I don't think for one moment the signaling equipment is a "simple piece of equipment". The days of somebody in a signal box pulling a lever to make the arms go up have pretty much gone in most places. Especially around the London Bridge area with so many junctions and train movements every few seconds. When the equipment fails or gets a glitch, I guess plan b kicks in which means safety first at all times when it comes to operating procedures which is how it should be.

It was a pain being caught up but I'd rather know the system was safe. Most people took it in their stride although a few were rattling off that old chestnut about "nobody is giving us any information". Pretty hard to do that when the guys on the platform probably don't know anything.
 
Last edited:


British Bulldog

British Bulldog

The great escape
Feb 6, 2006
10,893
essbee said:
But not on the scale of train signalling equipment (i.e. a daily basis)
Click to expand...

Given the vast amount of signalling equipment there is on the rail network and the amount of use it gets it stands to reason things are going to fail from time to time, It's always happened and always will happen.
 




H

HawkTheSeagull

New member
Jan 31, 2012
9,122
Eastbourne
Signalling isnt simple, put it that way. There will always be signalling issues, simple as that. Upgrading the signalling can help prevent it but this will never fully be done due to cost. Stopping all train movements is a failsafe, especially in an area such as London Bridge which has many trains operating.

The signal box closures are due to them moving signalling into 13 or so control centres across the country, similar to what happens in Europe. That way if something does happen, you have all the staff in 1 building to talk to other to sort things quicker (in theory).
 


British Bulldog

British Bulldog

The great escape
Feb 6, 2006
10,893
Pinkie Brown said:
I was stuck in that chaos too.

I'm no expert, but I don't think for one moment the signaling equipment is a "simple piece of equipment". The days of somebody in a signal box pulling a lever to make the arms go up have pretty much gone in most places. Especially around the London Bridge area with so many junctions and train movements every few seconds. When the equipment fails or gets a glitch, I guess plan b kicks in which means safety first at all times when it comes to operating procedures which is how it should be.

It was a pain being caught up but I'd rather know the system was safe. Most people took it in their stride although a few were rattling off that old chestnut about "nobody is giving us any information". Pretty hard to do that when the guys on the platform probably don't know anything.
Click to expand...

Most of the delay during failures is down to following safety rules and regulations. Under normal circumstances the signalling has a safety net of electronic interlocking that stops you setting up conflicting routes and crashing trains into each other, when equipment fails the signalman has to start talking trains past red signals thus bypassing your safety net and if you don't get it right then your likely to cause a train crash. So as you can imagine during those circumstances you check and double check everything before you move a train and it's inevitable that delays will occur as a result.
 


R

Ruffy

New member
Jun 24, 2014
25
essbee said:
Please help me understand.

25 minute journey yesterday - took 1.5 hours. Signal failure between
London Bridge and Charing Cross. *** ****'s sake

So, in the last 50 years we have:

1. Put a man on the moon (allegedly)
2. Started to find treatments for some of the
worst diseases known to mankind
3. Built a computer so powerful it can beat a Grandmaster
at chess.

Yet we can't get a relatively simple piece of railway equipment
to work reliably. Or am I being very naive here? :censored:

Please help.
Click to expand...

We could also say the same about the road network or the skies. We are all part of a big intertangled web. When something has an issue (breaks, fails, crashes etc) then everything else becomes affected. We will never get away from it in whatever circumstance. Unless we all work from home, oh hold on, what if the power fails in a storm? :)
 




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