METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING TRAINS BY DETERMINING A DIRECTION TAKEN BY A TRAIN THROUGH A RAILROAD SWITCH

摘要

An apparatus for determining the presence of a third rail disposedbetween parallel railroad tracks as a train progresses along said parallelrailroadtracks and further for determining the relative direction of motion of saidthird railwith respect to said first two rails and further for determining the rate atwhich thethird rail moves with respect to the first rails is disclosed, which is a lowpowerradar sensor disposed underneath the rail vehicle and directed toward the railonthe opposing side of the vehicle. In a preferred embodiment, two raildetectorsare shown which are disposed on opposite sides of the rail vehicle. The radardetectors are coupled with an onboard computing device and with othercomponents of an advanced train control system which can be used for preciselylocating the train on closely spaced parallel tracks and further for updatingandaugmenting position information used by the advanced train control system. Thesystem including GPS receivers and wheel tachometers for providing alternatesources of information for position determination.