Have you ever wondered what the various items of lineside equipment are on today’s modern railway? In the first of a series of articles, SIMON PALEY outlines the role they play and how you can replicate them in model form.
Above: The modern railway scene boasts a great deal of lineside equipment, as seen here as First Great Western HST power car 43091 approaches Didcot on a Cheltenham to London Paddington train on June 27 2018. Mike Wild.
OPERATING TODAY’S modern railway is very different to that of the past, with increasingly sophisticated computerised equipment employed to help run the system effectively, efficiently and safely.
To cater for this, the amount of lineside equipment required has increased dramatically over the last couple of decades with the expanded use of computerised distributed systems that control and monitor various aspects of the railway.
The vast majority of equipment you see lineside is signalling related, but there is also telecoms, power, rolling stock monitoring and operational kit.
In this first instalment, we shall look at each of these essential elements to provide a broad overview of their purpose and how you can model them. HM
Above: Signalling location cases appear in a variety of guises, su…
