[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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