(13-06-2015, 05:31 PM)traveller.b55 Wrote: Hello,
I am working on mass transit systems and I have never had a chance on mainline, as a result I believe it'd better if I try mass transit when I give the exam. However, as I've seen so far, the material and model answers are mainly done for main line.
Can anyone please help/guide me and tell me where I can find materials/examples for mass transit?
Thanks,
It is true and most material for metro is the traditional London Undergrround signallling.
However if working on mass transit then presumably you have access to suitable material from your job.
Module 2 would be the hardest to know what the examiners would expect for a modern metro system; I think the good news from your perspective is that they probably don't know either. I have this feeling that it would probably be quite easy if you put some extremely minimalistic signalling in for use in degraded mode and then drew on the layout / wrote explanation at concept application design level how your system could be configured to deliver the required headway and gave a safe train separation and
protected the route at junctions etc.
For Module 3, the layout for the Control Tables is not likely to be suitable for you and the aspect sequence question not applicable, but you simply choose from the other approx 8 questions the 3 you can best answer.
Similarly you may find that some of the questions in module 5 are not possible for your railway's context (e.g. level crossings), but then candidates from a traditional mainline perspective would not be liekly to answer questions relating to Automatic Train Operation, Platform Train Interface etc.
For Modules 1,4,6,7 I guess that the majority of the questions would be suitable for people from any domain- again there will be some more appropriate to a particular environment than others.
Don't disregard model answers or other attempts which relate to a different context than the one relevant to you. A lot of the exam is structuring and presenting an answer to the question asked, sensible time allocation etc. and hence they still serve of examples of that even if the technical content of the answer wouldn't match what you would write.
It is generally important for a candidate to demonstrate that they know WHY something is done rather more than the detail of WHAT is done; exposing yourself to a wider variety of signalling systems can actually be very helpful in being able to "compare and constrast", or infer why a solution in one environment may be less suitable in another one.
Hence it is a good idea to know something of "the other side"; in this case you have the advantage since Mainline info as you state is rather easier to get hold of publically than Metro (but since you work in the latter environment presumably it is available to you).
Actually I think in the UK at least Metro and Mainline signalling has been converging for some time, as a result of technology evolution, privatisation, contractor companies working across the divide etc. and of course the move to transmission based in-cab signalling. Similarly projects like Thameslink are really trying to turrn the mainline into a metro and indeed High Speed 2 is intended to have a lot of similarities with Metro operation.
Exam questions are not repeated from year to year, so there is no value in "learning" a previous good answer; the important thing is to understand how to approach them and to get used to interpreting the question widely enough to give a broad answer which covers the range rather than focus on detail for a restricted scope. Therefore whereas I can see that some model answers from an obviously Metro environment might be a comfort to you, actually I doubt whether they'd actually be significantly more help. there certainly are attempted answers on this Forum from a London Underground perspective, both traditional and from a modern system perspective.
Can only suggest that you attempt some answers yourself to add to those available; if you can get to
Derby on 18/19th July then you could get a taster of Mainline. In some years we have had a significant number from the Metro world, but from what I can see of those
registered so far the majority are from the Mainline world.