Swiss prototype signalling

[JohnDMJ]

Does anyone out there know the intricacies of the SBB signaling system? Whilst I have a layout plan in mind, I'm looking at the overall picture, including purple signals and so on!

[DaveF]

Hi John,

 

There was a thread on the old RMWeb at: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=45802&p=752980&hilit=swiss+signalling#p752980 which was mainly about RhB signalling, but it also covered the main points for all companies in Switzerland.

 

There are also references to publications in some of the posts.

 

David

[The Stationmaster]

There is a good - albeit short - explanation of the semaphore, 'older' colour light, and 'new' colour light systems in 'Les Signalisations Europeenes', special edition No. 445 of the French magazine 'Chemins De Fer' published by the (French) Association of Friends of The Railway (literal translation) and you might be able to find a copy via the internet although I believe it has been out of print for some years. But it does illustrate aspect seqeunces and meanings in colour and is easy to follow.

 

You should also look at http://www.thesignalpage.nl/en/data.php which has links to signalling pages for all over the world although some of the links I have just tried seem to be dead. However there are several working links to pages on Swiss signalling - one in German and another in Italian - which are quite informative as they are illustrated.

 

However the best site is German, but with pages in English at http://members.aon.at/sig/asr/ensigchbegriff.html which tells you more than you will probably ever need to know (but I'm not sure about purple signals in Switzerland - I can't remember ever coming across one that colour in any Swiss signalling installations although they are seen in France and Belgium).

 

Finally entering 'swiss signalling' or 'sbb signalling' in Google produces quite a lot of links but I haven't tried all of them.

[Horsetan]

Try also this Flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_vogel/4039246210/

[Horsetan]

Also this: http://www.hurrug.de/bahn/signales.html

[Fat Controller]

The website for Swiss and Austrian signaling is here: http://members.aon.at/sig/ Yes, you don't have to be fluent in German to understand it, it has translated pages in English

 

PS: purple signals are present in Switserland: they are used for "Huckepackverkehr", Piggybag-trains in US terminology. Used on the Simplon and L?¶tschberg routes (BLS).

They were intended to indicate to drivers of 'out-of-gauge' trains carrying road trailers that they would be switching tracks and running 'wrong-line'. Were they ever put into use? My wife's professor, who is Swiss and who spent a year on detachment to the Swiss equivalent of the Railway Inspectorate, suggested the idea may have been abandoned. Certainly, when we paid a technical visit to the BLS control centre in May, all of these trains were running via the new base tunnel, and thus didn't present gauge problems. There is some very sophisticated detection equipment for out-of-gauge loads, which not only gives an alarm (allowing the signaller to send 'stop and examine' to the driver), but which generates a rotatable three-dimensional image showing exactly where the gauge infringement is.

Brian