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#1
Hai everyone, I am new to the forum. I had 1.5 years experience in railway signalling mainly in U.K and Indian. Presently working as a signalling design assistant. Basically i had got trained for UK signalling includes NR standards and basic group standards etc.. and later Indian signalling. I had done few designs related to Indian railways and practiced on worked designs of UK. Mostly i had got theory knowledge rather than practical. This is my brief profile.


I had got some doubts regarding exam. As i have seen in the IRSE website there are two alternatives for the exam which includes The Indian Railways Secunderabad – Gazetted Officers Course in Signalling and module-1 should be completed. Is this gazetted officers course is given to private individuals and whats your opinion about when to take for exam and If yes, which modules are significant for me to prepare.
KKD
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#2
(07-12-2015, 09:57 AM)karundeepu Wrote: Hai everyone, I am new to the forum. I had 1.5 years experience in railway signalling mainly in U.K and Indian. Presently working as a signalling design assistant. Basically i had got trained for UK signalling includes NR standards and basic group standards etc.. and later Indian signalling. I had done few designs related to Indian railways and practiced on worked designs of UK. Mostly i had got theory knowledge rather than practical. This is my brief profile.


I had got some doubts regarding exam. As i have seen in the IRSE website there are two alternatives for the exam which includes The Indian Railways Secunderabad – Gazetted Officers Course in Signalling and module-1 should be completed. Is this gazetted officers course is given to private individuals and whats your opinion about when to take for exam and If yes, which modules are significant for me to prepare.

I am afraid that I do not know about The Indian Railways Secunderabad – Gazetted Officers Course in Signalling but would expect that it is only for certain employees of Indian Railways but I suppose there is no harm in inquiring of IR.

Yes you might be sufficiently experienced to start studying for your first module.  I suggest that the best one with which to start is module 2 and since you have worked to UK standards then I would recommend that best t follow these practices.  I guess that your work may have been working on location designs so whereas I think it unlikely you'd have been involved in producing Signalling Scheme Plans, I guess you have referred to them or Location Area Plans when designing, so would have some familiarity.
Module 3 would probably be the next one to take once your design knowledge has become deeper with a further year or so of experience.
PJW
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#3
Sorry for late and Thanks PJW my doubt is clarified 

Happy for me to say that I am interested to start preparation for module-2, and I need some clarity before starting. 
As I had some design experience only in Indian and it is not possible for me to gain knowledge about UK signalling as of now what shall I do?

By seeing old papers I had got idea that by using any railway practises some of the questions in mod-2 are answerable. Is it correct? Also if possible anyone shall provide me which experience should I need before starting preparation for module-2 like railway practices, designs, safety issues etc.,
KKD
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#4
(11-12-2015, 11:52 PM)PJW Wrote:
(07-12-2015, 09:57 AM)karundeepu Wrote: Hai everyone, I am new to the forum. I had 1.5 years experience in railway signalling mainly in U.K and Indian. Presently working as a signalling design assistant. Basically i had got trained for UK signalling includes NR standards and basic group standards etc.. and later Indian signalling. I had done few designs related to Indian railways and practiced on worked designs of UK. Mostly i had got theory knowledge rather than practical. This is my brief profile.


I had got some doubts regarding exam. As i have seen in the IRSE website there are two alternatives for the exam which includes The Indian Railways Secunderabad – Gazetted Officers Course in Signalling and module-1 should be completed. Is this gazetted officers course is given to private individuals and whats your opinion about when to take for exam and If yes, which modules are significant for me to prepare.

I am afraid that I do not know about The Indian Railways Secunderabad – Gazetted Officers Course in Signalling but would expect that it is only for certain employees of Indian Railways but I suppose there is no harm in inquiring of IR.

Yes you might be sufficiently experienced to start studying for your first module.  I suggest that the best one with which to start is module 2 and since you have worked to UK standards then I would recommend that best t follow these practices.  I guess that your work may have been working on location designs so whereas I think it unlikely you'd have been involved in producing Signalling Scheme Plans, I guess you have referred to them or Location Area Plans when designing, so would have some familiarity.
Module 3 would probably be the next one to take once your design knowledge has become deeper with a further year or so of experience.

Sorry for late and Thanks PJW my doubt is clarified 

Happy for me to say that I am interested to start preparation for module-2, and I need some clarity before starting. 
As I had some design experience only in Indian and it is not possible for me to gain knowledge about UK signalling as of now what shall I do?

By seeing old papers I had got idea that by using any railway practises some of the questions in mod-2 are answerable. Is it correct? Also if possible anyone shall provide me which experience should I need before starting preparation for module-2 like railway practices, designs, safety issues etc.,
KKD
Reply
#5
(17-03-2016, 05:54 AM)karundeepu Wrote:
(11-12-2015, 11:52 PM)PJW Wrote:
(07-12-2015, 09:57 AM)karundeepu Wrote: Hai everyone, I am new to the forum. I had 1.5 years experience in railway signalling mainly in U.K and Indian. Presently working as a signalling design assistant. Basically i had got trained for UK signalling includes NR standards and basic group standards etc.. and later Indian signalling. I had done few designs related to Indian railways and practiced on worked designs of UK. Mostly i had got theory knowledge rather than practical. This is my brief profile.


I had got some doubts regarding exam. As i have seen in the IRSE website there are two alternatives for the exam which includes The Indian Railways Secunderabad – Gazetted Officers Course in Signalling and module-1 should be completed. Is this gazetted officers course is given to private individuals and whats your opinion about when to take for exam and If yes, which modules are significant for me to prepare.

I am afraid that I do not know about The Indian Railways Secunderabad – Gazetted Officers Course in Signalling but would expect that it is only for certain employees of Indian Railways but I suppose there is no harm in inquiring of IR.

Yes you might be sufficiently experienced to start studying for your first module.  I suggest that the best one with which to start is module 2 and since you have worked to UK standards then I would recommend that best t follow these practices.  I guess that your work may have been working on location designs so whereas I think it unlikely you'd have been involved in producing Signalling Scheme Plans, I guess you have referred to them or Location Area Plans when designing, so would have some familiarity.
Module 3 would probably be the next one to take once your design knowledge has become deeper with a further year or so of experience.

Sorry for late and Thanks PJW my doubt is clarified 

Happy for me to say that I am interested to start preparation for module-2, and I need some clarity before starting. 
As I had some design experience only in Indian and it is not possible for me to gain knowledge about UK signalling as of now what shall I do?

By seeing old papers I had got idea that by using any railway practises some of the questions in mod-2 are answerable. Is it correct? Also if possible anyone shall provide me which experience should I need before starting preparation for module-2 like railway practices, designs, safety issues etc.,

Yes certainly you may answer to your railway's practice- there is generally on the mod 2 layout paper a box in which you are required to state what that is.

However you will need to think in advance how you will approach things when your railway's practices and the blank track layout and the associated operating requirements are incompatible.  There is a choice of "Mainline" or "metro" layouts but if you choose Mainline then the expectation is that there is a mixture of traffic types- fast expresses, stopping trains and freight.  Suppose your railway happened to be only for freight- this gives you  problem as if you completely ignore the passenger traffic then you frankly are not doing the same exam as everyone else.
Similarly if your railway did not have any lines where a headway of say 2 minutes were needed then it wouldn't have practices relevant, but again if you say that my railway only has one train per hour and is a single track line, then it really isn't possible to stick rigidly to just those practices and still answer the layout set.
However the IRSE recognises this, so provided you explain then you can use a mix-and-match.  For example I believe that many Indian railways are signalled with colour lights but really  very much in the same way as traditional mechanical signalling- a concentration of signals around each station area and then a long block section (perhaps a form of Absolute Block that may sometimes be enhanced with an axle counter as well).  I think the best way to tackle the exam in those circumstances is to learn how to do the braking and headway calculations in accordance with UK (Network Rail practice) and therefore demonstrate that you have that understanding of how to determine mAS signal spacing from these, but then explain that you are from India and that this is not relevant to your practices, so you will actually signal your layout with a signalbox at each junction area with a block section between each and recognise that this does not fulfill the stated headway requirement since this level of traffic is not one which your railway ever needs to face.  People have done this in the past and they can get their marks and pass the exam.

There is a lot of information about UK practice generally and in particular the braking and headway calculations in the mod2 Study material which should be available from the IRSE website once signed in as a member.  I know it is being revised and reissued, so if you can't find let me know and I'll make available. 


One thing to emphasise to anyone attempting module 2 is that YOU DO NEED TO UNDERSTAND RAILWAY OPERATIONS- how the signaller uses the signals (and potentially phones, radios, handsignals etc.) to convey to the driver information required to be able to operate the stated train service and particular shunting movements etc.  You must understand traffic flows and their specific requirements- running around trains, shunting, loading and unloading freight, joining and splitting passenger trains, engineering train movements, how to cope when when there are failures of equipment or other incidents etc. etc.

Hope this has helped resolve your initial doubts; please feel free to follow up
PJW
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#6
I would like to add [to PJW's post] that the exam is demonstrating an understanding of the principles and their application. Marks are not awarded for pinpoint placement of a signal but they are for the justification of why it is in that "spot". The same applies for quoting standards; that won't earn points but stating which methodology you are following will.

For example, stating you're using Corsican rail principles as a basis is good. Placing a UK AWS at 500m isn't or stating it the placement is based using guidance in standard 11201 isn't as neither demonstrates an understanding of why you've done what you've done!

My advise is have a go and M2 or M3, post the results here and ask for feedback. There are examples of answers and feedback to most question types on this forum. Lastly, don't be afraid to ask for help...

Jerry
Le coureur
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#7
Thank PJW and Jerry
I am involved in mainline for India as it consists of mixture of all types of trains. I need to learn the breaking and headway calculations in accordance with UK.

Also I had seen the examples present in the forum, after seeing them I think I must need to increase my knowledge on principles to do them as of know I had to revise them frequently.

I will ping you if need any help
KKD
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