Railway switches and signals – Block-signal systems – Automatic
Patent
1997-12-22
1999-09-07
Le, Mark T.
Railway switches and signals
Block-signal systems
Automatic
246 63R, 246167R, 246177, B61L 2100
Patent
active
059474238
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a vehicle control system, for example for use in signalling vehicles moving within a transport system such as a railway.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a vehicle control system for issuing control signals to vehicles to control their movements along a route between a first location and a second location, the vehicles comprising a set of vehicles of a first type, to which the system can issue control signals at more than one location within the route and a set of vehicles of a second type to which the system cannot issue control signals at more than one location within the route, the system comprising: sensing means for sensing vehicles entering and leaving the route, and the type of those vehicles; storage means for storing a record of the number of vehicles within the route and a record of the type of vehicle that most recently entered the route; signalling means for signalling to vehicles whether they may enter the route by moving beyond the first location; and control means for receiving information from the storage means and transmitting signals to the signalling means, and: 1) in response to the storage means indicating that there is at least one vehicle within the route and that the vehicle that most recently entered the route was of the first type controlling the signalling means to issue a signal of a first type, indicating that only vehicles of the first type may enter the route; 2) in response to the storage means indicating that there are no vehicles within the route controlling the signalling means to issue a signal of a second type, indicating that vehicles of the first type or the second type may enter the route; 3) otherwise controlling the signalling means to issue a signal of a third type, indicating that no vehicles may enter the route.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a vehicle control system for issuing signals to vehicles to control their movements along a route between a first location and a second location, to allow the direction of travel of vehicles along that route to be reversed from a first direction towards the second location to a second direction towards the first location, the system comprising: signalling means for signalling to vehicles to indicate the movements the vehicles are permitted to make; sensing means for sensing the presence and/or location of vehicles; processing means for processing information received from the sensing means to determine the safety of movement of vehicles; and control means for controlling the signalling means and, in response to a command to reverse the direction of travel of vehicles along the route from the first direction to the second direction: 1) controlling the signalling means to signal any vehicles within the route to halt; 2) controlling the signalling means to signal any vehicles approaching the route not to enter the route in the first direction by passing beyond the second location or in the second direction by passing beyond the first location; 3) waiting for a period sufficient to allow any vehicles within the route to reach a halt; and 4) if the processing means determines it is safe, controlling the signalling means to signal any vehicles within the route to move in the second direction and/or controlling the signalling means to permit a vehicle to enter the route in the second direction.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a vehicle control system for controlling the movement of vehicles comprising: a processing unit for receiving information from the vehicles to determine their status and transmitting information to the vehicles to control their movements; and communication means comprising at least one leaky feeder antenna positioned along the anticipated route of the vehicles and a receiving antenna on each vehicle for receiving signals from the leaky feeder antenna for allowing substantially continuous bidirectional communications between the vehicles and the processing unit
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patent: 3888437 (1975-06-01), Birkin
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patent: 5129605 (1992-07-01), Burns et al.
patent: 5590855 (1997-01-01), Kato et al.
Clifton Ray
Dunlop Ewan
Sadler Steve
Le Mark T.
McCarry, Jr. Robert J.
Westinghouse Brake and Signal Holdings Limited
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