Wayward Signal?

[Anonymous]

Greetings and Happy New Year.

A friend attended a meeting of railroad officials recently where the term 'Wayward Signal' was used to describe the likelyhood of a problem at a bridge site over the track. Would someone let me know what this term means? I have never heard this before. Thanks. - Ed

[mudchicken]

Editor:

Suspect something got lost in translation....look at NTSB Safety Recommendation R-O1-21 (along with R-01-22,R-01-23,R-01-24) put out 12-20-01 and the Amtrak derailment at Syracuse 2/5/01 see: http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2001/R01_21.pdf

Wayside as opposed to CAB signals? ASLRRA and AAR members are being polled for input/comments...

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help. I'll pass it along. - Ed

[REDDYK]

I work with controls, though not for a railroad. If I may hazard a guess, I think "wayward" is just a term used to describe what we sometimes call "phantom operation", or a "glitch". This is an undesired and unexpected trigger to an operation. The more sophisticated controls have built in protection for this sort of thing, but anything man-made is subject to occaisonnal failure. Does this fit the situation described?

[Anonymous]

Gary and others ...

Thanks for the help. I'm not sure if this is the answer because I wasn't there for the conversation so I can't 'read between the lines' regarding what was meant by the 'Wayward Signal' comment.

I am hoping someone can help me sort out another question. We received a site plan with topographic annotations at a gravel road grade crossing which is equiped with a crossing gate. On one rail off each side of the crossing is an annotation labeled 'riser' pointing to the rail. An electric line is indicated from the riser to a railroad control box at the site. Are these the occupancy detectors for the crossing? Can anyone help me understand how they work? Thanks. - Ed