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Hello, my name is Andreas Sons.
Here at the train shed Aumühle museum we focus on the history of smaller Northern German railways.
Prussian compartment coaches, Hamburg rapid transit trains, or railbusses are among the cars...
... that we're restoring with years of work.
But there's more to railways than just cars: e. g. track structure or safety and signalling technology.
I'm Stefan Bethke.
This multiple unit train series 137 had been converted to a training signal box by...
... Deutsche Bundesbahn and was in use until the early nineties.
Today, it's here in Aumühle.
Inside, we have five stations with seven signal boxes.
We're going to show you how operations are directed and a train is run between stations.
In this training signal box, we don't have any tracks. Instead, the world outside the box is simulated...
... using this display. Here on track 2 we have the 12.37 fast train from A-Dorf to E-Tal, waiting to depart.
The dispatcher is in his signal box "Af", located in the station building.
From here, he organizes all operations in the station: when and where trains arrive and depart on which track.
Points and signals, however, are controlled by signalmen in the signalboxes "Ao" and "Aw".
These signal boxes are located close to the points and signals they control, so...
... the signalmen can clearly see the tracks around them.
A lot has to happen before the train can depart.
First, the dispatcher has to inform the next station about the train by phone.
"Dispatcher B-Heim!"
"Dispatcher A-Dorf! Train notification: train 7136 at 37."
"I'll repeat: train 7136 at 37."
"Correct!"
The dispatcher now gives an order to the signalman in signal box "Aw" for...
... departure from track 2 towards B-Heim.
The order is relayed electrically. The power is generated using a crank inductor.
The order is signalled by the indicator "p2b" turning white.
Now the signalman moves the points.
The points levers are blue and marked with numbers.
Our display shows the position of the points.
In reality, the position of a set of points is indicated by the switchpoint light.
Demonstrated here on a locally controlled set of points.
Using the route lever, the points are locked into the correct position. The lever...
... can only be pulled when all the points are in the right position.
A "route" is the combination of points that a train traverses to go from one track to another.
This lock is important, since it makes it impossible to move points while the train is going over them.
At the same time, the route lock ensures that no other train can inadvertently cross our train's path.
A final safety measure has to be taken: the route lever has to be locked.
This ensures that the route lever cannot be moved back.
This lock will only be released when the train goes over an electrical contact on the track.
Only now can the signal lever be moved to "Proceed".
The train driver waits for the departure signal from the station master.
The train departs. On our display, we can see each section of track being occupied and freed again.
Finally, the last car has cleared the last set of points. The track contact releases the route lock.
Before another train can go towards B-Heim, the dispatcher at B-Heim has to confirm that...
... train 7136 has arrived there, and the line has been cleared. To do this, the signalman...
... here in A-Dorf first signals that the line is occupied, blocking all signals leading onto this line.
To make the station available to other trains again, the signalman has to clean up: ...
... the route lock has to be reset, and the order has to be returned to the dispatcher.
Now the point levers can be moved back.
The line to B-Heim remains blocked until B-Heim has "blocked back" the train, indicating...
... that the train has arrived in B-Heim, and the line is free again.
If you want to know how the train continues onwards, or be a signalman yourself, come visit us at the museum!