4 ms·
I'm not sure why they're even counting past 2 (the minimum number of axles to indicate a railcar is present, at least until someone delivers self-balancing sing
by chiph 7y ago
I'm not sure why they're even counting past 2 (the minimum number of axles to indicate a railcar is present, at least until someone delivers self-balancing single-axle railcars) for train detection. Unless it's to estimate track wear, or for revenue collection?
- makomk 7y agoTrains are typically made up of multiple carriages. The axle counters ensure that all the carriages which enter a section of track leave that section of track, and that none have detached and been left behind for the next train to run into.
- war1025 7y agoTo elaborate on this, I think what is going on is a section has a "counter-upper" on one side, and a "counter-downer" on the other side. So while the train is within that segment, the value of the counter is non-zero. Once they exit, all the axles should get counted again in the opposite direction and reset the count to zero. The problem with 256 is that the count would be at zero while you were in the track segment.
- jcranmer 7y agoOne of the primary uses of these kinds of devices is in lieu of track circuits: for a given rail block, they count the number of axles currently present by subtracting the number of axles that exited from the number that exited. Another use is to detect trains that have a failed coupling, disconnecting several cars which no longer have a powered locomotive attached to them to move them.