NR SAO-IEC-HD-41 ISSUE 5.1 PDF

Introduction

Automatic Route Setting (ARS) is a system used within a railway signalling and control centre to assist the signaller by performing functions such as setting routes for trains and monitoring the state of the railway.

In general ARS is installed as a subsystem within an Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC). ARS is also installed as part of the Waterloo resignalling scheme where interface processors are used to provide an IECC-like interface to ARS.

The ARS software has been written in a general way with the intention of using the same software package in a series of implementations. At an implementation in a particular area, the operation of the ARS software is guided by tables of fixed data held in the ARS Processor memory which define the geographical and operating characteristics of that area. These tables are set up by the ARS data preparation procedures described in this document.

It should be noted that a small number of area-dependent features are handled by the use of area-dependent program code. Methods for identification of such features are described in the ARS Guide to Specification of Operating Requirements SAO-IEC-TG-7.

This document describes how ARS data is prepared. It is assumed that the user is an engineer who is able to interpret signalling plans, Train Describer (TD) stepping tables and block schematics. The user should be familiar in broad terms with the functions performed by the ARS system, as described in the ARS Requirements Specification RT/E/S/10120 or, in more detail, in the ARS Functional Specification ARS/FS/1.

Because of the dependence of ARS on the signalling interlocking system to provide it with information on signalling states, some familiarity with the working of Solid State Interlocking (SSI) is desirable; a suitable reference for this is the SSI Interlocking Data Preparation Guide RT/SSI/8003. Similarly, because of the dependence of ARS on a train describer system to provide it with train position information, some familiarity with the working of a train describer working to specification BR 800 is desirable.

Section 2 of this user guide discusses the nature of ARS data preparation in general terms and is intended to give an understanding of why this approach was adopted. Section 3 discusses the source documents which contain information required by ARS. Section 4 defines the formats of the ARS data files. Section 5 defines the objects, such as signals, berths or locations, for which ARS data is required, and section 6 defines all of the data items which may be specified for each class of object. Section 7 describes how the ARS data files are processed by a data preparation program into the required form. Section 8 describes one method for using the source documents to prepare the data files, but other approaches are possible.

Section 9 gives an example of ARS data for a small hypothetical area. Section 10 discusses particular aspects which need more detailed attention.