Information for buying railway signalling books

[saluguvenkat]

I am from INDIA .I need some railway signalling books for improving signalling knowledge, which will cover all concepts of signalling from basics.

[dorothy.pipet]

What Timing!
I've just received an IRSE Bulletin email advertising the IRSE Testbooks (details below). I've also found Stanley Hall's ABC Modern Signalling Handbook helpful; it's much smaller.
Caveat - all these focus on British Signalling, I have no idea where to start looking for books on Indian Signalling.

Introduction to Railway Signalling
A slightly updated version of this text book has just been printed. Aimed at the complete beginner, this book describes the important principles behind modern signalling systems and details some of the main items of equipment used and its application in practice . It is available in softback form at a special price of £25 (+P&P) to members. Further details of how to order can be obtained from http://www.irse.org/public/itemsforsale.aspx.
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New Signalling Text Book: Railway Signalling & Control (The IRSE Yellow Book)

This new text book which supplements and updates the existing Red and Green text books was published earlier this year, and is available in hardback and softback form at a special price £40 and £35 respectively (+P&P) to members. Hardback copies are limited as only a small number were obtained so if you want one, order it quickly. Further details of the contents and how to order can be obtained from http://www.irse.org/public/itemsforsale.aspx.

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ABC Modern Signalling Handbook
by Stanley Hall (Author)
Ian Allan Publishing;
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0711034621
ISBN-13: 978-0711034624

[PJW]

I have just received my copy of the new Yellow book- it focusses on equipment and architectures as used on UK mainline.
Thus it is up to date rather than being set in the 1980s in the case of the equivalent Green book (and the 1960s/1970s as the small little Green books). Of course the older practices are still valid for IRSE Exam purposes and indeed are probably a little closer to that on the mainline Indian Railways (but not the new Metros!). I guess that it is of most use for module 5 but is a bit too much "manufacturers data" for my liking but it does make more widely available material that not everyone would have been able to reference.

There are of course the pair of books edited by R.C.Shama for the IRSE Indian section:
Q&A Basic Concepts in Railway Signalling and
Q&A Signalling Systems & Techniques
(don't seem to have ISBN)
which I would use as my bibles for Indian Railway practice (because I have very little other knowledge apart from what I have acquired from brief visits to India). These are also modern, published in 2010.
Beware though that the information is presented in the form of a series of what look to be a training course exam question with its equivalent "expected answer" and THIS IS NOT AT ALL THE FORMAT OF THE IRSE EXAM. Information is no doubt good, but use it to expand your underpinning knowledge rather than a hint of the type of questions that will come up in the exam.

For an international perspective then
Railway Signalling & Interlocking- International Compendium
Eurail press
ISBN 978-3-7771-0394-5
is available and concentrates more on overall principles than application detail- good reference book, but har going to read from cover to cover and EXPENSIVE.

I would actually recommend more (but as a set they are also VERY EXPENSIVE) the series of three volumes, bi-lingual English on the left hand page with French on the right hand page and diagrams captioned in both languages:
Signalisation et automatismes ferroviaires Tome: 1,2,3
(Green, Yellow, Red respectively).
ISBN for the Green book 978-2-918758-48-8
These are more readable, lots of photos and diagrams and covers practices both sides of the Channel Tunnel both mainline and metro.



NONE of these books are to be regarded in any way as "IRSE Exam set text books" but are good sources of information on a range of relevant topics.

However if you are only initially looking for basic information then I agree with Dorothy- delay spending serious money and go for that Ian Allen ABC book intended for general railway enthusiasts- much better value for money when you are starting out. If you want an IRSE book that gives a little more technical (rather than operational use) information then the other book she mentioned is the one that I would buy (but in some ways less good than the ABC, certainly re photographs etc).

Of course there is a lot nowadays that you can get from the internet for free and I would start there. There is always a chance that there is some misinformation about, but actually most of what I have found is actually pretty good standard and for general awareness purposes adequately trustworthy.

What Timing!
I've just received an IRSE Bulletin email advertising the IRSE Testbooks (details below). I've also found Stanley Hall's ABC Modern Signalling Handbook helpful; it's much smaller.
Caveat - all these focus on British Signalling, I have no idea where to start looking for books on Indian Signalling.

[saluguvenkat]

I have gone thorugh the links, really help full .
Thank you for sharing the usefull links.

What Timing!
I've just received an IRSE Bulletin email advertising the IRSE Testbooks (details below). I've also found Stanley Hall's ABC Modern Signalling Handbook helpful; it's much smaller.
Caveat - all these focus on British Signalling, I have no idea where to start looking for books on Indian Signalling.