Noticed in a lot of the cabs you see signs about protection of the line and using track circuit clips. What is this and what’s it’s function? Thanks for any info.
I’m not entirely sure but especially on 3rd rail electrified lines you need to be very careful of the rail, like with some trains it has warnings about overhead wires even if none are present
They are used in an emergency. Track circuit clips are temporary 3rd rail isolation clips around a certain area, much more efficient and convenient than shutting down the entire 3rd rail supply as it only affects certain trains not the majority of services. If there is an emergency, drivers and conductors can use these so passengers can safely walk across the track and evacuate trains. I believe they work by breaking the circuit, but not entirely sure.
Emergency protection. If you need to lay emergency protection for any reason, the very first thing you do is lay Train Circuit Operating Clips (TCOCs). This is a wire with a clip at each end- place one on each railhead. Assuming that the area is track circuited and not axle counters/absolute block/no block, this will cause the signal in rear to go to danger as the TCOC will occupy the track circuit. Emergency protection also includes walking 1.25 miles from your position and placing detonators on the railhead. When a train goes over the detonators, they will explode and the driver will know to stop the train. As to why emergency protection would need to be placed- if there is any sort of danger to trains and you’re unable to contact the signaller or if the signaller tells you to lay emergency protection. Dangers to trains include floods, landslide, track defect, after derailment, etc... More obscure reasons are if there has been accidental train division and you can’t see your rear portion and you can’t contact the signaller. Also, in a temporary block working or emergency special working section, if your train fails and you’re unable to contact the signaller. TCOCs can’t be used in 4th rail areas and if in 3rd rail area, place first clip on rail furthest from 3rd rail so you can’t accidently. electrocute yourself. That’s not TCOCs. You’re thinking of short circuit bar.
Haha, yes they cause a very, very loud bang. You’ll definitely know about it if you drive over one. But they do explode as well which is why the instruction is to stand 30metres away and facing away from the detonators once you’ve laid them. Apparently some years ago, a kid managed to get hold of some of detonators and took it school. He thought it would be funny to stamp on it and he ended up losing a leg. So you definitely don’t want to be next to one when it explodes. These are what detonators look like. As I said previously, you walk 1.25 miles (2km) from the obstruction and place 3 detonators on the rail. The reason why it’s 1.25 miles is because even if a train approaches doing 125mph, it should be able to stop before the obstruction. These are what TCOCs look like: