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“‘For 67 percent of the railroad’ — that is, every lettered train line except the L — ‘we don’t actually see train movement or control any signals and switches
by THE_PUN_STOPS 9y ago
“‘For 67 percent of the railroad’ — that is, every lettered train line except the L — ‘we don’t actually see train movement or control any signals and switches from the control center.’ Instead, they do it the same way they’ve been doing it for decades: train crews communicating by radio with a dispatcher. If there’s a delay, the dispatcher phones it in on the ‘6 wire,’ an open party line, and awaits instructions.”
Wow. I knew the system was old and rickety but I didn’t realize it was this old and rickety.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- lb1lf 9y agoThe tram line in Trondheim, Norway (orders of magnitude smaller than anything operated by the MTA, but still...) had a signaling system operated by the drivers on a single-track line - on a pole next to the track there was a small bucket. When you rode uphill, you grabbed a token as the tram passed. Empty bucket meant thou shalt not pass. When you came back down again (leaving a vacant track behind), you dumped the token back in the bucket. This system was in use at least until I left town in 2005.
- jacquesm 9y agoI love the simplicity of that solution, but the hacker in me wonders how hard it would be to duplicate the token...
- TeMPOraL 9y agoA cracker in me wonders what would happen if some random person just came up and stole the token...
- lb1lf 9y agoI believe the assessment at the time was that the speed was so low on this track anyway that a missing token would be an inconvenience more than an outright hazard - tram drivers getting into staring contests and the like. ("You back off!" "No, you back off!")
- jboles 9y agoIt is usually engraved with the two stations it is valid between and shaped differently to prevent confusion with adjacent segment's tokens. Besides, it is in the train crew's own interests to be holding the one true token, lest they be the ones unauthorized to be on the single track line and therefore the cause of an accident... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_(railway_signalling) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_(railway_signalling)
- Animats 9y agoToken systems have been widely used on single track lines for over a century. The UK probably still has some.[1] It's for very low traffic lines only. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_(railway_signalling) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_(railway_signalling)