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Railroad Signaling | 
 enlarge | Authors: Brian Soloman, Brian Solomon
Publisher: MBI
Category: Book
List Price: $36.95
Buy New: $22.77
You Save: $14.18 (38%)
New (21) Used (8) from $18.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 295930
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 8.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0760313601
Dewey Decimal Number: 625.165
EAN: 9780760313602
ASIN: 0760313601
Publication Date: September 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This complete and illustrated guide to railroad signaling in the U.S. simplifies and presents the utterly bewildering array of mechanisms, procedures, and rules that have evolved since the 1830s to promote safety, impose control, and disseminate information on America's railways. In addition to providing a brief history of North American signaling from the nineteenth century onward, Brian Solomon provides photos of equipment and explanations of not only how it works, but how it is used and what it all means. Solomon also explains how trains on the same route are given "precedence" or placed in pecking orders and how routes are broken down into digestible segments called "blocks" that help dictate the speed and manner in which a train is driven. The result is a fascinating look at the development of communication on the rails, from the days when slips of paper describing an engineer's track orders were held on a metal hook for him to grab on the fly, to today, when instructions are transmitted via computer. Major manufacturers of signaling equipment are represented.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 More about the history May 2, 2008
I was looking for a reference guide for the signals at the tracks near my house. This book gave me a basic idea (I guess there are too many configurations/railroad) but most of the book covered the early history of signaling. Interesting, but I wanted more of a recent 'field guide' type book. I have 7 signals to look at within a mile bike ride of my house and I still cant figure out 5 of them!
Railroad Signaling August 16, 2007
I purchased the book in my capacity primarily as a railroad union officer (BLE&T), and secondarily as an amateur rail historian (former Vice-President, Pacific Region, NRHS). I was hoping to find the book to provide a bit more technical detail than what it contains. Having been involved in several signal related accident investigations, I have found my techicnal expertise to be somewhat lacking when the time comes to interview those railroad employees whose responsibility it is to maintain and repair railroad signalling systems. I don't know that Brian Solomon's book will go a long way towards helping me increase that knowledge; but it does provide a comprehensive bibliography which I am sure I can put to use in reaching my goals in that regard. From a historical perspective, the book is a helpful primer to those who wish to understand the basics of train control methods.
Rail crew July 3, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a basic overview of all types of railroad signals. It covers the history and development of visual and electrical signaling systems. To get an understanding of how signals work this is an excellent book. Unfortunately no book could cover all signals that you may encounter trackside. Because each railroad has its own signal system, you will have to refer to their timetable to decode local signal aspects and indications.
An easy read with excellent graphics, "Railroad Signaling" is a must for anyone interested in railroads and the technology that goes with them.
 Railroad Signaling June 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I worked as the BN Roadmaster's Clerk at Northtown for five years and had an excellent working relationship with the Signal Department. By reading this book, I now understand the complexity of signal installations.
This book is written in a way that a lay person can appreciate how the different types of signals operate in relationship to each other. Brian Soloman speaks about the signal systems in various part of the country work (and are different from the BN's) and has pictures of same.
This book is a must for railfans.
Ed Burns of Anoka, Minnesota
 Almost a good book June 8, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Brian Solomon's Railroad Signaling book is one that has been missing from the ranks of books about railroads for many years. There has not been a general publication about the sometimes perplexing and interesting world of railroad signaling aside from GRS's book of many years ago and an article in Trains magazine from 1957. Anyone who really wanted to understand these things, had to either befriend a railroad signaling engineer or maintainer, or become one!
So, while the need was great, and this book could have been a welcome addition to a serious railfan's or modeler's library, there are enough troubling points about this book that make me want to caution you about it.
Mr. Solomon decided to take a historical approach to the development of the art and science of signaling. While that is as good an approach as any, the unfortunate result was that about two thirds of the book discusses things that are seen only occasionaly in museums. Also, he is obviously fascinated by the old semaphore signals as the vast majority of the pictures in the book are of those rather than the newer types that are in use today. He also spends a lot of time developing the history from the 1870's to the 1970's and then has a very brief chapter about the advances that the computer age has brought to bear since then. The is one small subsection on such an important topic as PTC and none on CBTC which are the two main technological deployment of the early 21st century.
Another irritating problem is the frequency of typos throughout the book. At one point I was totally confused as to whether the signal protecting a grade crossing of old was called a wigwaG or wigwaM since both appeared interchangeably in the same paragraph.
The layout of the text was also rather confusing with some concepts being given after descriptions of how they were used. I had to look in advance of my reading for the technical diagrams to try and figure out what he was writing about. Unfortunately, some of his diagrams are incorrect as well.
On the good side, he does cover both American and British practices which therefore explain over 90% of what is used around the world today. Being an American author it is no surprise that he focuses most of his attention on American practice. It would have been nice though, to have more of an explanation of the differnces in, for instance, the use of divergent routes vs American speed routes.
The author does provide many of the rules that are in use in various locations and points out that these are examples as each railroad and transit property essentially following their own preferences.
So my conclusion is that while this was an excellent first effort, it needs to be thoroughly revised and recast to be the premier book explaining the arcane art of railroad signaling.
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