2020 IEEE 5th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Engineering

The Past, Present and Future of Railway Interlocking System

Lujiang Huang
CASCO Signal Ltd.
Shanghai, China
e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract— Railway Interlocking system is the most the specified time sequence, to ensure the safe operation of
fundamental and important part of railway signaling system. It the train.
ensures the safety of train movement. With the development of
railway signaling system, it has experienced three stages: B. Category
mechanical interlocking system, relay interlocking system and The interlocking system has experienced several major
computer-based interlocking system. On the basis of reviewing developments. According to the device form of realizing the
the history of railway signal development, this paper logical relationship of interlocking, this paper divides the
introduces the development of interlocking system and developments into the following three stages:
discusses the future development direction of railway Mechanical interlocking. The interlocking
interlocking system.
relationship is achieved by mechanical components.
Keywords- railway signaling system; interlocking system;
It has gone through two stages of all-mechanical
computer-based interlocking system; all-digital computer-based interlocking system and mechanical plus electrical
interlocking system; history interlocking system.
Relay interlocking. The interlocking relationship is
achieved by relays and circuits based on wiring logic.
I. INTRODUCTION
Computer-based interlocking. The realization of
The 200 years history of world railway development is a interlocking relationship through software programs
great revolution in transportation. The industrial revolution in computer or processor. It has gone through three
has promoted the development of railways. At the same time, stages: relay-based computer interlocking system,
the development of railways has greatly promoted the wheels all-electronic computer interlocking system and all-
of the industrial revolution. It has created railway giants and digital computer interlocking system.
industrial power such as Britain and the United States in the
19th and 20th centuries. The rapid development of Chinese C. Composition
railways has laid a solid foundation for the rise of China in At every stages of the development, the interlocking
the 21st century. system is composed of four parts: control panel, interlocking
With the development of the railway, the railway devices, actuators and outdoor devices. The development of
signaling system has gone from the stage of guiding trains by each part constitutes the development of interlocking system.
people riding horses to the stage of advanced methods based Such as, the control panel developed from control lever of
on network technology, computer technology and electronic mechanical interlocking age to control button of relay
technology. At the same time, the railway interlocking interlocking age. And now the control panel is realized by
system (RIS) has also gone through several stages of modern industrial control computer. Furthermore, the
mechanical interlocking; relay interlocking and computer- actuators passed through the following parts: mechanical
based interlocking. lever control, the electrical relay circuit control, electronic
This article reviews the history of important equipment in hardware board control and all-digital control in the future.
railway signaling system and focuses on the development of The basic structure of interlocking system is shown below:
interlocking systems. Control Panel

II. INTERLOCKING SYSTEM

Interlocking
Devices
A. Definition
Narrowly speaking, interlocking refers to the restriction Actuators
relationship between the signals, switches and routes.
General speaking, the restriction relationship between
various devices in railway signaling system is interlocking.
Outdoor Devices
The interlock system is a part of the railway signaling system,
which guarantees the movement of equipment according to Figure 1. Basic structure of interlocking system

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 III. THE BEGINNINGS OF INTERLOCKING SYSTEM - on the back will move up or down. The horizontal bar has a
MECHANICAL INTERLOCKING SYSTEM metal slot, which can be inserted into the groove on the side
of the vertical tappet. The action of the lever can drive one or
A. All-mechanical Interlocking System more horizontal rods to move left or right. If any operating
In 1843, the signal control based on lever which installed bar is not in the correct position and the horizontal lever
in Bricklayers Arms Junction of London was designed and cannot be moved, the operating bar which needs to be
developed by Charles Hutton Gregory. This control mode operated will not be operated. As shown in Fig. 5, operating
realized the centralized control of switches and signals. In bar 40 should be operated after operating bar 41, 42, and 43.
the past years, centralized control has become the basic
principle of interlocking system. Another key element of the
interlocking system is that actions sequence of equipment
will be pre-set in order to prevent the arrangement of
conflicting route.
John Saxby was a signalman of Brighton and South
Coast Railway Company in London. He is credited with
being the first person to combine the mechanical operation of
signals with interlocking safety devices.
In 1856, the first mechanical interlocking system was
developed by John Saxby and also installed at Bricklayers
Arms Junction. This system can not only control 8
semaphore signals and 6 switches by mechanical action bar
in the signal room, but also prevent wrong operation. The Figure 4. Interlocking bed
schematic diagram is as follow [1]:
Signal Switch

Signal operating bar

Switch operating bar

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of mechanical interlocking

Two parts of the mechanical interlocking system are Figure 5. operation sequence of operating bar
introduced based on the Greenford east station in London [2].
The operating bar in the signal room is shown in the
B. Mechanical Plus Electrical Interlocking System
following figure (Fig. 3). The operating bar in different
colours has different meanings: the black bar represents The original mechanical plus electrical interlocking
switch, the blue bar represents switch lock, the red and system controlled switch by mechanical device and
yellow bar represents different types of signals, and the white controlled signal by electrical equipment. With the advantage
bar represents spare (unused). of electrical control: longer control distance, without
mechanical drive lever, switch and signal started to use
electrical control gradually. Although the interlocking logic
was still realized through the mechanical interlocking device,
the interlocking system has started to move to the next stage.
IV. RELAY INTERLOCKING SYSTEM
When the Mechanical operating bar is replaced by a
small one or button, the mechanical interlocking system was
replaced by relay interlocking system which based on circuit
wiring logic and relays.
In February of 1929, the first relay interlocking system
was put in service by General Railway Signal (GRS)
Figure 3. Operating bar in the signal room Company on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy at Lincoln,
Nebraska.
The interlocking relationship in mechanical interlocking
In February of 1937, the first installation of an all-relay
system is realized through the mechanical interlocking bed
interlocking with pushbutton automatic selection of routes
(Fig. 4). When the operating bar moves, the vertical tappet
and positioning of switches and signals, named NX

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(Entrance-Exit) system designed by GRS, was put in service D3
5
7
3
D9
+
at Brunswick, England. The first application of NX system in 1 D7
the United States was installed at Girard Junction, Ohio, on
the New York Central in 1937 [3]. D3KJ 5DGJ 1/3DBJ 3DGJ D7ZJ
5/7FBJ
A. Control Panel of NX System
D3XJJ
Every the routes in the station-yard have entrance and KZ KF
exit. The operator can set the route by push the entrance
knob and exit knob. When the switch needs to be maintained Figure 8. 6502 signal check circuit
or be operated individual, operator can use the test key on
control panel which as shown in the Fig. 6 [4].
Switch test key V. TODAY’S INTERLOCKING SYSTEM - COMPUTER-
BASED INTERLOCKING SYSTEM
With the development of computer technology, electronic
technology and network technology, the heavy relay and
complicated relay circuit is gradually replaced by electronic
devices. Computer interlocking which based on the software
and hardware went into historical stage.
Compared with the disadvantages of relay interlocking
system: large in size, high investment, high failure rate,
difficult in fault diagnosis and low automation efficiency,
computer-based interlocking system has the following
advantages: high safety, high reliability, high integration,
Entrance knob and Exit knob high efficiency, simple maintenance and so on.
In 1978, the first computer-based interlocking system
Figure 6. NX system control panel
was put in service at Gothenburg station in Sweden by ABB
Company [6].
B. 6502 Electrical Centralized Control In 1984, the first computer-based interlocking system of
In 1964, AX type safety signal relays was developed in China was put in service at Meishan iron mine in Nanjing. It
China. In 1966, the box-type electrical centralized circuit fills in the blank of China and opens a new chapter of
was used in Zhenru station of Shanghai-Nanjing line. research and application of computer-based interlocking.
Experienced the problems of the 6501 electrical centralized On November 19 of 1991, Vital Processor Interlocking
control, the circuits were improved several times based on (VPI) which redeveloped by CASCO Company based on
the box-type electrical centralized circuit. Finally, the GRS’s VPI product was put in service at Honghai station of
modified circuits were named 6502 electrical centralized Guangzhou-Shenzhen line. This is the first computer-based
control. The 6502 electrical centralized control is widely interlocking system on the main railway line in China.
used in China in the stage of relay interlocking system. In 2015, all-electronic computer interlocking system
The control panel of 6502 system as follow (Fig. 7): named iLOCK-E which independently developed by
CASCO Company was put in service at Thanaleng station in
LAOS. It is the first all-electronic computer interlocking
system exported from China.
The control panel of computer-based interlocking system
is realized by industrial control computer and display.
Operator used the mouse to set route in stand of push the
button in relay interlocking stage. The software programs
achieved the operation of interlocking logic relationship. In
different stages of computer-based interlocking, the way of
control outdoor devices is also different.
A. Relay-based Computer Interlocking System
The relay-based computer interlocking system which
retains part of the circuit of relay interlocking system is the
most widely used type at present. After the operation of
Figure 7. 6502 system control panel interlocking logic, interlocking process device drive the relay
and the relay circuit drive the outdoor devices. It is the
A part of signal check circuit of 6502 system as follow transition stage from relay interlocking stage to all-electronic
(Fig. 8) [5]. This circuit can check the indication of point, the interlocking stage. Under the background of relevant
clearing state of track circuit and the conflicting route. technology was not mature, developed from relay
interlocking to all-electronic computer interlocking was not

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conducive to the popularization and application of computer- The actuators of all-electronic computer interlocking
based interlocking. The relay-based computer interlocking system can be placed in different places: at the same place
system has laid a solid foundation for the development of with interlocking process device, wayside or on another
computer interlocking. station.
The system structure is shown below (Fig. 9): All-electronic computer interlocking system has become
the latest development direction because of high
maintenance, less equipment occupation area, shorter
Man-Machine interface
construction period, lower project cost, and intelligent fault
diagnosis and treatment, etc.
Digital communication
C. All-digital Computer Interlocking System
Interlocking process device Both interlocking systems described above adopt cables
to connect indoor and outdoor device and transfer the strong
current from the indoor power supply panel to outdoor
Cable
equipment by controlling the weak current. All-digital
Relays and Circuits Actuators
computer interlocking will be the next development stage
Cable and a revolution of computer interlocking. It is a new
Outdoor Devices computer interlocking which based on wireless
communication, intelligent outdoor equipment and without
any cable connection with indoor and outdoor equipment.
Figure 9. System structure of relay-based computer interlocking
system
Outdoor equipment only needs the power supplied by the
distributed power terminal and communicates with the
interlocking process device by secure communication
B. All-electronic Computer Interlocking System protocol. At the same time, interlocking process device will
The differences between all-electronic computer be more miniaturization and intellectualization.
interlocking and relay-based computer interlocking are as The control process of the station based on all-digital
follows: computer interlocking system can be described as follows:
(1) The actuator of the al-electronic computer After the operation by operator on intelligent man machine
interlocking system is the electronic unit or board which interface device, the information will be sent to intelligent
replaces the relay circuit built by the relay and cable in relay- interlocking process device by wireless communication.
based computer interlocking system. It uses cable directly Then the operation result of intelligent interlocking process
controls outdoor equipment without any relay. device will be sent to intelligent outdoor equipment which
(2) Indoor device and outdoor device are separated by also can transmit the information to interlocking process
relays in relay-based computer interlocking system. The device.
controlled plant is relay and system only needs to care about The system structure is shown below (Fig. 11):
the on-off status of relay. But the controlled plants of all-
Intelligent
electronic computer interlocking system are switch, signal, Man Machine interface
track circuit and so on. The system directly controls or
collects the status of outdoor device and needs to care about
more information of outdoor device. Wireless communication
The system structure is shown below (Fig. 10):
Intelligent
Man Machine interface Interlocking process device

Digital communication
Wireless communication

Interlocking process device Intelligent

Outdoor Devices

Digital communication
Figure 11. System structure of all-digital computer interlocking
Electronic units or boards Actuators
system
Cable

Outdoor Devices
Now, the digital communication between interlocking
system and axle counter system has been realized. Germany
Figure 10. System structure of all-electronic computer interlocking
railway and Siemens are already started working on All-
system digital computer interlocking system [7].

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 VI. THE FUTURE OF INTERLOCKING SYSTEM Whatever the future of interlocking systems, the security
requirements will be more stringent with the development of
A. From Centralized Control to Distributed Control interlocking system.
In the age of mechanical interlocking, centralized control
VII. CONCLUSIONS
of equipment was a choice to save manpower and material
resources. The history of interlocking system is also the history of
The actuators in the all-electronic computer interlocking railway signaling. After 200 years of development, the
system can be dispersed to different stations or wayside. All- railway interlocking system has developed to the stage of
digital interlocking system doesn’t have actuators. In other computer-based interlocking. Based on the development of
words, the intelligent devices located in wayside are the the interlocking system, this article looks forward to the
actuators. The distribution of actuators is the first step. The future development of the interlocking system.
second step is the distribution of interlocking process device Intelligentization, digitalization, networking and integration
and the man machine interface device. will be the future development direction of interlocking
systems. At the same time, the development of interlocking
B. Digitization and Intellectualization of Outdoor Device systems will also drive the development of other systems and
With the development of technology, outdoor equipment outdoor equipment.
will experience digitization and intellectualization. It is not Compared with other fields, the development of railway
only a collection of cables and mechanical components, but interlocking system is slightly slower, and even some
also intelligent equipment based on microprocessor, wireless technologies are still behind. However, the interlocking
communication module, data processing module and so on. system will surely move towards one milestone after another
with the development of science and technology.
C. Integration of System or Function
From the independent interlocking systems to system ACKNOWLEDGMENT
integration, such as the integration of interlocking systems Thanks to the providers of precious photos.
and train control systems [8]. Interlocking system will
integrate some functions of other systems, such as all
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