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Block Size over the years?
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SPBED is correct, block size, if it has changed from the original installation, has generally increased in length due to longer braking distances (due to heavier trains) and because the need to accommodate fast passenger trains has vanished from many lines. You didn't want a passenger train to have to take a speed reduction until the last possible moment. Length of trains hasn't been a big factor -- railroads ran some very long trains back in the day, but they were typically very light. <br /> <br />Blocks were not originally oversized, typically, to reduce the cost of intermediate signals. That wasn't a major consideration. The cost consideration today is to get rid of intermediates, if possible, to reduce maintenance costs. The reduction in signal maintainers from 1920 today is on the order of 20 to 1, or better. <br /> <br />A good university or big city engineering library carries volumes of Railway Signal Engineer (it changed its name a few times), which began publication around 1910 and lasted until the 1970s or so, as well as studies on track capacity done back in the 1920s and 1930s when this science matured. <br /> <br />S. Hadid <br /> <br />
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