Railroad Signal

Can someone give me a guide on north american signals I can't find a book for railroad Signals

 

Which route? From Wikipedia -

“There is no national standard or system for railroad signaling in North America. Individual railroad corporations are free to devise their own signaling systems as long as they uphold some basic regulated safety requirements.”

 

Here are just a few that I found by Googling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_railroad_signals
https://brickmodelrailroader.com/in... consist of,approach, and clear, respectively.
http://www.mikeroque.com/railroad-signals/

 

I can recommend the series of videos starting with this:

These videos are a good basic introduction which will help you understand most NA signalling systems.

 

Here's an old handout that came with the old Kuju Rail Simulations physical copy. Can cover some signals, but won't cover signals unique to certain railroads.

 

I have seen these video and I found them very helpful in understanding the signaling system.

 

Here you can find the rules for some us railway (Csx, Caltrain for example): http://signals.jovet.net/rules/index.html

 

These work for Sand Patch Grade: https://signals.jovet.net/rules/CSX Signal Rules.pdf (first page; SPG is former Chessie track).

However, they are of no use on Peninsula Corridor, LIRR or Oakdale Subdivision!

 

On that site there is a pdf for CalTrain so you can use that pdf for peninsula corridor, but for the others I haven’t found such PDFs

 

Speaking very broadly, RR in North America use either speed-based signaling (like the German, but without the PzB intricacies), or a modified route-based system, like the British; "modified" because elements of speed signaling have been incorporated by most. What's the difference? In a nutshell, speed signaling tells you how fast you can go (not with actual numbers, but rather specific light configurations mean certain defined speeds). Route signaling tells you where you are going to go, in other words which way the switches are set; it's up to the driver to know in advance what that means in terms of speed limits.

Who uses what can be a tangle, because thanks to a plethora of mergers the nine Class I railroads have inherited legacy systems which can be entirely different. But, speaking generally, CSX like most Eastern RR uses speed signaling; Union Pacific and BNSF like most western RR use (modified) route signaling. Norfolk Southern is like CSX across its traditional N&W/Southern/Virginian territory, but its western trackage tends to be route-based. Canadian National is straight speed-signal.


Of course, in every system all red means STOP!

 

I never thought in these two categories before. With this information, a lot of things click into place for me, especially on SFJ. Thanks a lot for sharing