[Talk-GB] railway=rail + oneway?
Martin Wynne
martin at 85a.uk
Fri Jan 15 09:10:20 UTC 2021
Most double-track railways are not signalled for bi-directional running.
There are separate Up and Down lines. Up is towards London, Down is away
from London (or the principal junction). Trains normally travel on the left.
In emergency or during engineering work, trains can switch to the other
line in what is called "Wrong Road Working". This involves special
signalling arrangements, often using a single human "pilotman" for each
length, travelling on every train. The principle being that he can't
have a head-on collision with himself. That's a massive simplification,
but is still the basic principle. The process is time-consuming and
reduces line capacity significantly.
There are almost no lines where it is physically impossible to run the
wrong way. Sometimes points have to be physically clamped with padlocks
to prevent derailments when run over in the wrong direction.
Single-track railways are obviously signalled for two-way running.
Sometimes two lines running side-by-side look like a double track
railway but are actually two single-track lines, which separate at some
point. An example of that are the lines through Worcester Foregate
Street station and over the river bridge. In that case there are usually
warning signs for the staff, see on the right in this photo "CAUTION
TWO-WAY WORKING ON BOTH LINES":
https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?attachments/foregate_st_1280_rp-jpg.6/
Martin.
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