Railroad Forums 

  • European Railway and Subway/metro Signals

  • General discussion of passenger rail systems not otherwise covered in the specific forums in this category, including high speed rail.
General discussion of passenger rail systems not otherwise covered in the specific forums in this category, including high speed rail.

Moderators: mtuandrew, gprimr1

 #1116373  by kaitoku
 
That's a tall order, given the diversity among railway signal systems used in each country. Try wikipedia first, though the English language entries tend to be written in a hodgepodge style from a N. American point of view, with some British examples. The English langauge section on German signaling may prove enlightening:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_railway_signalling

This is a treatise on North American railway signal practices from a European point of view:
http://www.lundsten.dk/us_signaling/

In general, the closer you get to heavy rail metro and passenger train heavy systems (i.e. NE corridor operations), the closer N.American practice approximates European practice.
Also note that certain railway systems run to a strict timetable sometimes down to the seconds, in addition to being signaled- this would be metro systems and operations like SBB (Swiss). US rail systems outside the metro context tend to be less strictly timetabled, if at all.