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  • What is a "track light"?

  • General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.
General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.

Moderator: Robert Paniagua

 #469031  by Champlain Division
 
Often I hear dispatchers on the scanner here around Metro Atlanta say "I've got a track light" at such and such a location. Can anybody enlighten me on what they mean?

At face value, it seems like the dispatcher is stating that he cannot get a section of CTC track to accept a route command or that it is showing falsely occupied.

What say thee, guys?

 #469059  by LCJ
 
Often called a "track occupied light" or TOL. When a dispatcher sees one of these on his/her screen/board, while there are no trains that are supposed to be occupying that track, he/she will want a maintainer to go out and look for problems. Broken bond wires are often the problem.

Basically. something is interrupting the track circuit, the same way a train will when it occupies that section of track.
Last edited by LCJ on Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

 #469132  by trainwreck
 
Broken rail, slide fence, switch left open, signal 'traffic' not turning, train lost its identification and/or forgotten about; it is all the same, a red or amber light, hence a track light, TOL, track indication. The embarassing ones are forgotten trains!!

"Uh, dispatcher, I found your track light, it is CSXT 666!" Very embarassing and usually they want to meet with you after the shift.

 #469242  by Champlain Division
 
Ah, yes. Another way of saying "Murphy strikes again!" Problem is, there are so many things that [i]can[/i] go wrong. At least there's an indicator of when they [i]do[/i] go wrong.

Thanks, guys.