TRAIN CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 56, 30 November 1926, Page 8

TRAIN CONTROL

NEW SYSTEM ON TRIAL INCREASED TELEPHONE FACILITIES DIRECTION FROM CENTRAL DEPOT In accordance with the policy laid down by the Prime Minister (Right Hon. .1. G. Coates) in his last Railways Statement, a trial is now being made over selected sections of line in the North and South Islands of a new telephonic system of dealing with movements of trains and the control of rolling stock, better known as “train control.” The installation will probably be completed in about nine months’ time.

The principal objects of train control are to maintain the punctual running of booked trains, and to see that special trains are run at suitable times; to ensure the expeditious movement'of traffic; to regulate the flow of traffic from point to point, according to the capacity of the yards to receive and Jjhe running lines to carry it; to obtain the maximum service from the available locomotive power by using the least possible number of locomotives, incurring a minimum of unproductive mileage, and securing the greatest workable loads. Further, to adjust between various depots the power available to ensure that a shortage at one depot is, wherever possible, met by a surplus at another; to regulate the hours of trainmen, to ensure the fullest possible use being made of the men available, and that the hours of duty of the men are kept within reasonable limits; to distribute the available rolling stock promptly and to the best advantage; and, finally, to make all necessary arrangements in any case of emergency, advising all concerned as to what has occurred and what emergency arrangements must be effected. SCHEME EXPLAINED. The sections selected for a trial of the new system are Wellington to Marton, in the North Island, and Christchurch to Oamaru, in the South Island. Briefly, the scheme concerns the construction between the points mentioned of suitable copper-wire circuits with selective telephones, and the institution of train control from central offices. An illustration of its operation was given yesterday. A room is allocated for the train control officer and his assistants in the head office. An assistant sits at a desk with a selector telephone keyboard in front of him, and a train diagram for the section he is controlling. A loudspeaker is used instead of the earphones, and no bells are installed. A station operator can call by merely lifting his receiver and speaking. The method of speaking is standardised. . For instance: Station “Ngaio speak-

ing.” The c«itroller answers: “Speak, Ngaio,” and the conversation proceeds. At the conclusion the controller says: “Finish, Ngaio,” and Ngaio finishes. No station may intrude if, on lifting the receiver, he hears a conversation in progress, except under urgent conditions. when he alters his call to (for example), “Shannon, urgent.” The train control officer calls any station using the key for that station, and the office is known as “central” for all purposes. On the train diagram, which is prepared for each day’s working, all the time-table passenger trains are plotted in red ink. Goods trains are not plotted in, but are timed for departure in the time-table, and generally for arrival at the terminus station. The train control officer plots in the running of the goods trains as they are rung in, and makes the necessary arrangements for their best running and crossings. He also plots, in pencil any departure from the running of passenger trains, so that at the end of the day the diagram shows, a complete record of the actual running of all trains on the area. The cause of any delay to trains is also notified and marked on the diagram. Immediately any departure from the timetable running occurs which may affect the running of other traffic, "central” works on his di.a.gram the alterations necessary to facilitate the working of the traffic as a whole, with the least delay to all concerned? These are described as being most of the requirements from the train-running point of view. ACTUAL PERSONAL TOUCH. For the system to be successful the train control officer, it is held, must be in complete charge of the section in regard to loading, train-running, etc. He must receive exact information regarding wagon requirements, empties, and train-running; he must be in touch with all locomotive sheds to enable engine power to be arranged with short notice j and he must have power to hold a. train, where necessary, to save, possibly, hours of delay to a number of other trains. Train control is actually the present system of control extended by the help of telephones, to enable the traffic officer to be in actual personal touch with each station in the district.