Train protection system

A train protection system is a railway technical installation to ensure safe operation in the event of human failure.

The earliest systems were train stops, as still used by the New York City Subway, the Toronto subway, the London Underground, the Moscow Subway (only on the older lines) and the Berlin S-Bahn. Beside every signal is a moveable arm. If the signal is red, levers connected to valves on any passing train hit the arm, opening the brake line, applying the emergency brake, If the signal shows green, the arm is turned away from the levers and there is no contact.

The Great Western Railway in the UK introduced its "automatic train control system" in the early years of the 20th century. Each distant signal had before it a ramp between the running rails. If the signal showed green, the ramp was energised with a low voltage current which was passed to the locomotive when a shoe came into contact with the ramp. A bell rang in the locomotive's cab to confirm the clear aspect, and the electric current kept the brakes from being applied. If the signal showed yellow (meaning the next signal would show red) the ramp was dead and a siren sounded in the cab. If the siren was not cancelled, the brakes would automatically be applied. After the nationalisation of the railways in the UK in 1948, this system was later replaced by the magnetic induction "automatic warning system".

In this system data is transmitted magnetically between the track and locomotive by magnets mounted beside the rails and on the locomotive.

In the Integra-Signum system the trains are influenced only at given locations, for instance whenever a train ignores a red signal, the emergency brakes are applied and the locomotive's motors are shut down. Additionally, they often require the driver to confirm distant signals (e.g. CAWS) that show stop or caution – failure to do so results in the train stopping. This gives sufficient braking distance for trains following each other, however it cannot always prevent accidents in stations where trains cross paths, because the distance from the red signal to the next obstacle may be too short for the train to brake to a halt.

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Wikipedia