Continental Signalling

[Pyewipe Junction]

One of my favourite pastimes for relaxation is to watch cabride videos on YouTube. I prefer to avoid high speed trains, as you don't get much of an impression of the line or the countryside it's travelling through. I seem to have exhausted all the videos of interest for the UK and have now turned my attention to Europe, especially Switzerland and France. There's a channel called 'Railway Emotions' with lots of interesting journeys through Switzerland, both standard and narrow gauge.

I can't help the feeling that signalling on the Continent (with the exception of The Netherlands, which is similar to the UK) is overly complicated, especially in France, and tries to cover all contingencies where a simple signal with appropriate additional warnings would be better. It always seems strange to me that a train can pass ANY signal at red. Also, I've noticed that signals tend to be higher than in the UK and the aspects don't seem to be as large. At least in the videos, this makes them difficult to discern, but this may just be the angle of the camera.

On the subject of Swiss railways, all I can say is - wow! So neat and tidy, hardly any trackside weeds or shrubbery, no litter, highly intensive services run with absolute precision - I could go on and on. Obviously the Swiss love their railways and have made a commitment to them over decades, even in country areas. Unlike certain other countries I could name...

[Mickey]

Regarding continental railway signalling it's all a bit baffling to try to understand what it all means especially after watching a small number of German steam videos from the 1980s?. Likewise as you observed Pyewipe on German railways as well all the semaphore signals all appear to be mounted on tall straight posts and I can't recall if I remember seeing any bracket post signals(?) and also the signal posts appear to be located on the right-hand side of the track with the semaphore arm facing 'away' from the track which looks rather strange to British eyes?. Also if two semaphore arms on the same post are showing 'off' I think that means a 'junction route ahead is clear' but I could be wrong as I am not that overly interested in continental railways to be honest.

[Pyewipe Junction]

Regarding continental railway signalling it's all a bit baffling to try to understand what it all means especially after watching a small number of German steam videos from the 1980s?. Likewise as you observed Pyewipe on German railways as well all the semaphore signals all appear to be mounted on tall straight posts and I can't recall if I remember seeing any bracket post signals(?) and also the signal posts appear to be located on the right-hand side of the track with the semaphore arm facing 'away' from the track which looks rather strange to British eyes?. Also if two semaphore arms on the same post are showing 'off' I think that means a 'junction route ahead is clear' but I could be wrong as I am not that overly interested in continental railways to be honest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_railway_signalling

[thesignalman]

Regarding continental railway signalling it's all a bit baffling to try to understand what it all means especially after watching a small number of German steam videos from the 1980s?. Likewise as you observed Pyewipe on German railways as well all the semaphore signals all appear to be mounted on tall straight posts and I can't recall if I remember seeing any bracket post signals(?) and also the signal posts appear to be located on the right-hand side of the track with the semaphore arm facing 'away' from the track which looks rather strange to British eyes?. Also if two semaphore arms on the same post are showing 'off' I think that means a 'junction route ahead is clear' but I could be wrong as I am not that overly interested in continental railways to be honest.

There is no call for bracket signals in continental signalling as the route is not indicated, only speed. There is an animated explanation of junction signals here: https://www.signalbox.org/overseas/germany/hanau.htm

John

[Mickey]

The German signalling system did it's job obviously but compared to British signalling practices it looks quite baffling?.

[Hatfield Shed]

The German signalling system did it's job obviously but compared to British signalling practices it looks quite baffling?.

That's because you aren't an Eisenbahnknobenpunkthinundherschalber.