NW vs NS intermediate signals

[NW Mailing List]

Mr. Cochran - 

There are several issues here. I will try to be brief, as you certainly want a summary instead of gory details. 

1.) The N&W tried the Approach Restricting signal briefly in the early 1960s. I think it was on the Scioto Division. The aspect ("appearance") of the indication was a regular "approach" in the top arm of the signal over a "backwards approach" in the bottom arm of the signal. There were problems with the interpretation of that signal and several wrecks ensued, and the Approach Restricting was withdrawn rather quickly. I do not recall the details. The Approach Restricting never made it into the Rule Book, so it had to be covered by local instructions (Superintendent's Bulletin, or by Time Table Special Instruction, if it stayed around long enough to make the next Time Table.) 

2.) Sometime around 1982 or 1983, the Chessie was the first railroad in the country to try out the "No Stop at Stop & Proceed Signals, Just Proceed at Restricted Speed" principle. It was purely a fuel conservation issue and the Chessie said as much, to save starting and accelerating trains from a dead stop. Again, there were problems (read: rear end collisions.) I think that lasted on the CSX into the 1990s before it was withdrawn, but I could be wrong about this as I never kept up with the Chessie & Descendents. 

3.) In the late 1990s, American railroads started toying again with the "No Stop on Stop & Proceed Signals" notion. This time around, they withdrew the name "Stop & Proceed" from the signal section of the Rule Books, and replaced it with the name "Restricting." The railroads which were using a bottom marker below the top arm Stop used this as an occasion for removing those marker lights, too. So that now the principle is: As long as the signal has a number plate under a top arm Red, you can keep moving (at Restricted Speed.) NS, CSX-Tee (don't you dare forget that "Tee"! ,) and Conrail are using this principle. Amtrak operates under the NORAC (Northeast Operating Rules Advisory Committee) Rule Book and, due to the sensitive nature of their traffic, still honors the Stop & Proceed signal. 

GCOR (the "General Code of Operating Rules") is the Rule Book used by almost all railroads west of the Mississippi, and has been around since the 1950s. It was the attempt to have one uniform set of practices for all roads, as there was much "running on the other guy's pike" in the West. But no railroad wanted to give up its signal system (or invest in a new signal system,) so each GCOR road adds massive supplements to the basic GCOR book, and some of the supplements are almost as big as the Rule Book itself ! Crews working on GCOR roads carry that piece of garbage in a fat three-ring notebook binder, and if they run over another railroad, they have to carry that road's Supplement, too. The problem, of course, has always been "Whose railroad are we on now, and how do they do it here?" GCOR roads also use the "No Stop on Stop & Proceed Signals" principle. 

Here endeth the disquisition. I hope you can find the answers you need in the above verbiage. 

-- abram burnett 

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