🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <483113ac-e620-4be1...@googlegroups.com>,
 <hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>OFF TOPIC

Well, sort of.

>There is a big push now to implement Positive Train Control on
>passenger railroads.
>
>Anyone familiar with it?

>However, it seems than an earlier system did everything the new
>expensive high tech system does:
>https://books.google.com/books?id=0SADAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA2&dq=popular%20science%20july%201951&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q&f=false

The 1950 system enforced speed limits.  PTC does a lot more than that,
like stopping a train if it enters a block with another train in it.

PTC is relatively difficult in the US because we have long stretches
of unsignalled track, but the main problem is that the railroads don't
want to spend the money.  See the Wikipedia article for more info on
what it does and the ways it can work.



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Regards,
John Levine, jo...@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

On Friday, July 6, 2018 at 6:07:47 PM UTC-4, John Levine wrote:
> In article <483113ac-e620-4be1...@googlegroups.com>,
>  <hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
> >OFF TOPIC
> 
> Well, sort of.
> 
> >There is a big push now to implement Positive Train Control on
> >passenger railroads.
> >
> >Anyone familiar with it?
> 
> >However, it seems than an earlier system did everything the new
> >expensive high tech system does:
> >https://books.google.com/books?id=0SADAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA2&dq=popular%20science%20july%201951&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q&f=false
> 
> The 1950 system enforced speed limits.  PTC does a lot more than that,
> like stopping a train if it enters a block with another train in it.
> 
> PTC is relatively difficult in the US because we have long stretches
> of unsignalled track, but the main problem is that the railroads don't
> want to spend the money.  See the Wikipedia article for more info on
> what it does and the ways it can work.

The July Trains magazine article described PTC.  It required a
great deal of hardware and infrastructure, yet it wasn't clear
what PTC did that ATC didn't already do, or could be easily made
to do.

For instance, a train could be easily stopped before entering
an occupied block by giving a speed code of zero and setting
that to stop.