railroad signal

railroad signal, device designed to inform train-operating crews of conditions of the track ahead and to relay instructions as to speed and other matters. The earliest signals were flags and lamps indicating that the track was clear. The semaphore signal, with its three indications of “stop,” “proceed with caution,” and “all clear,” was introduced in the 1840s. Interlocking signals, to prevent giving an all clear for one route when clearance has already been given for a conflicting route, were introduced in France and Britain in the 1850s. They were improved into the block system, by which the distance interval between trains was constantly recorded. The introduction of electric power brought increasing automation to block signalling. In modern automatic block signalling the axle of a train entering a section of track on which another train is running shorts a special track-to-train circuit causing danger signals to flash inside the cab of the locomotive. Automatic train control, introduced in high-speed operations in Japan and elsewhere, goes a step further; if a restrictive signal is not heeded by the engineer, the brakes are automatically applied. The final step, completely automatic, crewless train operation, was technologically feasible by the 1960s and in use in a few places, especially in mining and industrial operations. On a few metro systems, including some sections of the London Underground, only one crewman is needed, to operate the automatic doors.