Approach Restricting, was: "Pole and Paddle" semaphores

[NW Mailing List]

I have never seen an approach restricting on a CPL.  In fact, I'm not 
even sure (being too lazy to go digging through my rule books) that 
there is a rule for it on NS.  The color light signal is a flashing 
yellow, and it can also be a "diverging route approach restricting" by 
putting one or more red lights over it.  That would be the same as an 
approach restricting, but indicating that the train is taking the 
diverging route at the current signal as well.

I see them daily.  Going from Linwood, NC to Roanoke, via the former 
Virginian, trains will always get an approach restricting signal at the 
intermediate approaching Hurt (the control point giving access to the 
connection track).  We also use them (along with the diverging route 
variants) for trains entering Linwood yard.

I wonder if different railroads have/had different mentalities when it 
comes to operating and the way they look at their train crews.  For 
example, on NS our signals give us information about the route the train 
will take, and crews are expected to know what the required speeds will 
be.  On CSX, the signals give information about the required speeds, but 
not specifically about the route (though of course it can usually be 
inferred).  I always assumed that NS expects a little more from its 
train crews in that sense- they tell us what to do, not how to do it.  I 
would speculate that N&W and Southern differed in similar ways, to some 
degree. Southern seems to have had no problem with an approach 
restricting signal, assuming that the train crews would understand the 
potential and act accordingly.  Basically, if somebody hit that caboose 
just beyond the signal, then they weren't running restricted speed in 
the first place.  It sounds like the N&W assumed the crews would (or at 
least might) be speeding and not complying with the signal, so to 
prevent the resulting accident they eliminated the potential by 
eliminating the signal.  Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into the 
whole thing.

Ken Rickman

On 8/6/2013 12:11 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

> Where is one located on today's NS, and is it a CPL or color light?


-- 
Kenneth Rickman
Salisbury, NC
"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." - Plato