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Unreliable TCs?

You are here: Home > Forum > Simulations > Released > Euston PSB > Unreliable TCs?

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Unreliable TCs? 29/11/2011 at 18:52 #24049
Danny252
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1461 posts
Having played a few hours of Euston, I've managed to get TC failures twice on two different track circuits (the one in advance of 132/133 and one of those on the points in front of 115). Is it an intentional feature that if something breaks, it's more likely to break again in future? If not, then it must just be my local S&T who aren't very good at fixing things!
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Re: Unreliable TCs? 29/11/2011 at 19:42 #24054
UKTrainMan
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1803 posts
Could say that's as per real life. I have known of real failures to occur, be fixed, only to occur again a little while later.
Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for.
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Re: Unreliable TCs? 29/11/2011 at 20:09 #24056
GeoffM
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6376 posts
It's completely random which means each TC has an equal chance as any other of failing the next time something fails.
SimSig Boss
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Re: Unreliable TCs? 29/11/2011 at 21:55 #24077
clive
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2789 posts
" said:
It's completely random which means each TC has an equal chance as any other of failing the next time something fails.
Though it's possible to make a track circuit never fail when developing a sim.

Points also all fail equally (or never fail) but remember that if either end of a crossover fails, the whole thing is broken, so that's twice as likely as simple turnouts. And some of the complex bits in Euston and King's Cross involve 6 sets of points linked together, so they are six times as likely to break.

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Re: Unreliable TCs? 30/11/2011 at 12:17 #24113
GoochyB
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222 posts
And with points I believe I am right in saying that the failure is triggered when they are changed, so those that are used more are more likely to fail because they put themselves in the firing line for the next random failure more often.
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Re: Unreliable TCs? 30/11/2011 at 12:28 #24114
ralphjwchadkirk
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275 posts
In the real world, the failure can happen at any time but will only be realised when you try and move the points (unless there is a detection failure or similar where the points will show OOC without being moved).
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Re: Unreliable TCs? 30/11/2011 at 12:56 #24119
GoochyB
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222 posts
Of course, I was referring to how it appears that SimSig simulates it, as it seems to me that rather than failures being dormant waiting to be discovered when the points move the sim will randomly fail a point when it moves and provided the max no of failures has not been reached.
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Re: Unreliable TCs? 30/11/2011 at 14:14 #24130
kbarber
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1743 posts
" said:
Having played a few hours of Euston, I've managed to get TC failures twice on two different track circuits (the one in advance of 132/133 and one of those on the points in front of 115). Is it an intentional feature that if something breaks, it's more likely to break again in future? If not, then it must just be my local S&T who aren't very good at fixing things!

AIUI Euston was a bit like that. A friend of mine was a signalman there in the mid-80s; apparently there were a few tracks that could be relied upon to go down several times in a shift (around the south end of Primrose Hill Tunnel IIRC); it got to the point that the S&T were given a TIII for several days, after which the offending tracks worked. Until it rained...!

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Re: Unreliable TCs? 30/11/2011 at 23:29 #24168
Stephen Fulcher
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2084 posts
" said:
In the real world, the failure can happen at any time but will only be realised when you try and move the points (unless there is a detection failure or similar where the points will show OOC without being moved).
Generally, points stand a "better" chance of failing when they are moved from one position to another, but can fail at any time.

A common fault is detection set too fine, causing the points to flash out under trains, although they will of course NOT move under a train, merely lose detection.

HR microswitch and relay contacts or dodgy cables will cause points to fail seemingly at random.

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Re: Unreliable TCs? 01/12/2011 at 23:08 #24260
bnsf734
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60 posts
I remember around 1986/87 I was in the front coach of a train arriving at Euston platform 4 or thereabouts. As we were approaching the end of the platform the ride suddenly got rather rough and we grabbed hold of anything we could until the train came to a stop. We had a "points failure" which resulted in our coach being derailed on a set where apparently work had being going on shortly before. Our coach stopped at such an angle where we could step off the left side straight on to the ballast. Quite a leap from the right hand side door though. The passengers were evacuated onto the ballast and walked up the platform ramp, along the platform, onto the concourse and away. Euston operations were slightly restricted for the rest of the day! We wrote to the railway expressing our concern and were given a free first class ticket to anywhere on BR. I seem to recall a scottish trip not long after!

Not sure how that could be replicated on the sim (or whether I would like to sort out the mess!)

Calv

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