Interlocking

The railML® interlocking schema is used to help manage and share information about railway signals and routes. The main objective is to ensure the route safety and to prevent conflicting movements. The main users of the railML interlocking schema are interlocking suppliers and simulators. They often manually copy configuration data from paper plans, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

Key components of railML interlocking schema:

• Signals: They are track assets that visually transfer information to train drivers, indicating whether they are clear to proceed or should stop based on their optical appearance.
• Switches: These track assets determining the train path through the railway network. With their position the various routes are defined.
• TVP-Sections: These sections in the railway network are used to prove the absence of other railway vehicles in the path of a train.
• Infrastructure Manager Rules: A set of definitions is used to define specific characteristics within a generic classification for typical track assets like signal aspects or route types.
• SignalBoxes: These objects are collecting the relations of various track assets and functions into the interlocking logic of an area.
• Radio Block Centres: These objects are collecting the relations to the signalboxes and track assets within an area for use of ETCS systems.

Example use cases of the railML interlocking schema:

• European Train Control System (ETCS) track net provides infrastructure managers with all the technical and operational information for accessing and using rail networks and enables entities determine train positions and generate a movement authority for the train.
• Simulation (RSIM) is intended for infrastructure managers simulate traffic on increasingly realistic models of their networks to design and test timetables.
• Interlocking Engineering (IMED) concerns exchanging engineering data to tailor interlocking for a station with the focus on interlockings and signalling systems.

To explore more detailed features and elements of the interlocking schema, please visit the railML wiki3 page.

For further inquiries, you may contact Dr. Jörg von Lingen, the current coordinator for the railML.org interlocking subschema.