A clear current threshold for a track circuit is defined as a current above which a section of track is considered to be unoccupied. When a train moves along a track the current is shorted out by the train axles indicating the track is occupied. During periods of precipitation the current is reduced from a normal baseline even when the track is unoccupied which can lead to false alarms. The method includes receiving weather data for the vicinity of the track, possibly from a simple rain gauge or online data; and based on the weather data a clear current threshold is selected. Raw current data may be received over a period of time such as 10 days as shown in fig.9A and filtered to exclude those times that the track was occupied, as shown in fig.9B, to produce a clear current threshold. During periods of precipitation, fig.9C, the filtered threshold may fall below the level at which the track is considered occupied, even when it is not, so the threshold may be lowered, as shown at 901 and 903, to avoid false positives. The threshold may also be modified to take account of a drying track.
Methods for selecting a clear current threshold for a railway track circuit
2017-09-13
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | B61L Leiten des Eisenbahnverkehrs , GUIDING RAILWAY TRAFFIC |
Methods for selecting a clear current threshold for a railway track circuit
European Patent Office | 2017
|European Patent Office | 2023
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