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| Absolute block regulations Today at 18:12 #158265 | |
itwithlyam
3 posts |
Hi, does anyone know where these "Absolute Block Regulations" everyone refers to are defined - e.g. regulation 5 (warning arrangement)? I've been searching all over the internet but can't find an actual source with this.
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| Absolute block regulations Today at 19:07 #158266 | |
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TUT
515 posts |
The regulations for train signalling were set out in, well, well in the regulations for train signalling! The big four (Southern Railway, Great Western Railway, London Midland and Scottish Railway and London and North Eastern Railway) published their own regulations for train signalling, but they were very, very similar. A better historian on these matters than me could tell you more about the history of the various regulations and the processes by which they were mostly standardised. Before the days of the big four the original smaller companies again published their own regulations. Again I am not a great expert on this but I think there were quite a lot of differences in the earliest days, but they grew to become very similar. The Signalling Record Society has a very wide collection of signalling regulations however they are for the most part only available to members https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/archiveregulations.php Here you can find, to give just one example, the LMS's E.R.O. 52019 Book of Instructions to Station Masters, Signalmen and Others containing The Regulations for Train Signalling on Double Lines by the Absolute Block System (Section I of the Rule Book); by the Permissive Block System; also General Instructions to Signalmen dating from 1934 After nationalisation BR published its own signalling regulations which were standardised, although with regional variations (mostly along the lines of the former big four). On that same web page we find, for example, BR's 29960 Regulations for Train Signalling and Signalmen's General Instructions As you can imagine these are, well, private and not for publication. These are official BR and earlier company publications. For the information of the company's servants only. You couldn't pick up a copy at WH Smiths. Nevertheless, you may be able to find copies on Ebay or at railway auctions. Alternatively consider joining the SRS if you're interested or you could consider visiting the archives in person. Otherwise the rules are summarised and explained in various places, including https://signalbox.org/block-system/ The regulations did not really change all that much for many years and the October 1972 revision of BR's regulations closely resemble earlier signalling regulations, including regulation 5 (Warning Arrangement), although the main Rule Book had been considerably reorganised. In more recent years the form and layout of the Rule Book has been overhauled several times, most recently with the RSSB rule book. The current rule book, including the train signalling regulations, which are now published as modules including TS1 (General Signalling Regulations) and TS3 (Absolute Block Regulations), is made available by the RSSB to professional railway workers, but is not available for public consumption. The absolute block regulations have been fiddled with in recent years in some rather unsatisfactory ways, but the core of them is very much as it ever was. Most of the rules for divided trains for example have been dispensed with, including the 5-5 bell signal, due to the fact that we don't have unfitted or partially fitted trains running around any more that could run away in the event of a train dividing. The modern rule book does not have regulation 5, it has module TS3 regulation 3.5 Restricted Acceptance. It can only be used in very, uh, restricted circumstances nowadays unless special instructions say otherwise. Last edited: Today at 19:09 by TUT Reason: None given Log in to reply |