can anyone tell me where i can find the meaning of some signal lights, i am a newbie here and dont have alot of knowledge, by the way i see trains that run past red light signals all the time
This is a good website to get your teeth wet on the different types of railroad signals out there. If and when you are ready even later you could pic up a railroad employees timetable at a rain show for your fav. road. In there they would have the different signals that were in use for that railroad.
If you have seen a train go by a all red signal, they were probably talked by it from the Dispatcher.
Kevin
Hi, and welcome to the Forum!
The following site http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Reference/ABCs%20of%20Railroading/2006/05/Railroad%20signals.aspx will help you out. At the bottom of this page is a list of names, aspects, and indications of the signals used on the Santa Fe. These are fairly typical, but–depending on which railroad you’re looking at–there will be different names, and probably different rules.
One of those rule changes permits trains to pass certain red signals at restricted speed without stopping.
There are other websites that will give some easy-to-digest information about railroad signals and their meanings, and I’m sure other people here will direct you to them. But don’t hesitate to ask further questions here if you need to.
Each railroad has a Book of Rules and Employee Timetables and most today are based on the AAR NORAC Rules. Each railroad is different and usually for many reasons will have different signal and systems in different places. TRAINS and other fan tomes have done articles, etc. about them, so a check of indici might come up with some, or google or bing for books.
As to passing red signals on a regular basis, either a train is given permission via radio to do so but have to stop before proceeding or the signal is on the opposite side of the track from where the engineer is or as otherwise provided in the timetable or books of rules. Usually, therefore, the signal on the right and closest to the track being used rules. But there are so many variations, rules, samples, examples, exemptions, and otherwises, you have to know the railroad and its rules of operation.
Welcome to the forum, and to railroading! The absolute best and most complete source of “signal lights,” et al. is the softcover book by Brian Solomon entitled, RAILROAD SIGNALING, published by Voyageur Press in 2010. It’s got everything you, as a novice, might want to know. Have fun! With regard to your specific observation of “trains that run past red signals all the time,” I suspect that you have observed the signals change from green to red after the head-end (usually the locomotive) enters the block.
[#welcome]
As a follow-on to the excellent advise already offered by Other Posters. I would suggest that you follow this linked Thread here to an excellent piece by KP Harrier, and a number of other Posters from the Southwester Region.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/120779.aspx
“SUNSET ROUTE TWO TRACKING UPDATES” This post suns to about 118 pages, it is complete with really good photos of the work discussed; there is much information within the posts referencing the intricacies of the signalization as it progresses through the greater Los Angeles area, and back to the East.
Hi, this is the website I used to understand how railroad signal systems work: http://www.lundsten.dk/us_signaling/index.html ABS is covered in the different forms it is in, also CTC, TWC (track warrants), DTC (blocks) are covered. Almost every signal system in America is based on the systems described on that website.