How Do Trains Get To The Right Place
Discussion
I've always wondered how the right train gets to the right place.
I assume (perhaps wrongly) that the train driver has no control over where his/her train gets directed to.
Presumably there's some central scheduling system that knows which train is where, where it needs to go and how the points/signals need to get set to get it to the right place.
How does it work ?
Do trains ever get sent to the wrong place ?
I assume (perhaps wrongly) that the train driver has no control over where his/her train gets directed to.
Presumably there's some central scheduling system that knows which train is where, where it needs to go and how the points/signals need to get set to get it to the right place.
How does it work ?
Do trains ever get sent to the wrong place ?
Thanks all. Very interesting responses.
What I was really trying to understand wasn't so much the mechanics of how signalling and interlockign works, but how the route planning and scheduling works.
What sparked my thinking was the preserved Deltic that's been contracted to work the freight route in Blythe. In order for it to get from wherever it's kept (Barrow Hill?) to Blythe - presumably someone had to pick up the phone and arrange for it to be scheduled to get from A to B and for all the right points/signals to be set so it ended up in the right place.
What I was really trying to understand wasn't so much the mechanics of how signalling and interlockign works, but how the route planning and scheduling works.
What sparked my thinking was the preserved Deltic that's been contracted to work the freight route in Blythe. In order for it to get from wherever it's kept (Barrow Hill?) to Blythe - presumably someone had to pick up the phone and arrange for it to be scheduled to get from A to B and for all the right points/signals to be set so it ended up in the right place.
tight5 said:
does that answer your question Seight_Returns ?
Getting there, thanks. Still a bit curious as to who/how the presumably hugely complcated schedule to ensure that all the passenger/freight/other services gets co-ordianted.What's "TRUST" ? Is that the scheduling system that produces these route maps - similar to the "TOPS" system that Tonker describes above ?
If for example, the owner/operator of Tornado needs to get the loco from Hither Green where I believe it lives, to Kings Cross to pull a mainline special, then back to Hither Green again at the end of the day - do they just call up Railtrack with their requirements and one of these route maps with the times and route get emailed to them along with an invoice for whatever parts of the network they've used ?
Edited by Seight_Returns on Thursday 2nd June 17:00
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