A study on high-speed recognition of hybrid track circuit

Abstract

Track circuit in a railway signaling system can detect a train, while speed code and other kinds of information are interchanged through a track circuit. Rail can be used as a part of a track circuit. In an audio frequency track circuit, speedup and comfortable ride are offered. Some kinds of LRT do not have track circuits and do not use a fixed block system, however. Instead of a fixed track circuit, they use a virtual track circuit using software techniques. In this paper, a hybrid track circuit (HTC) is proposed using RFID antenna and reader on the cab and RFID tag on the sleeper. Also HTC is composed of software on the cab computer. Cab computers are a hot standby system for reliability and safety. 900MHz frequency is used and Eurobalise specification for housing is applied. Meanwhile, a simulator for testing a HTC was made. The maximum speed of the simulator was 500km/h. The proposed HTC can detect tags correctly for 500km/h high speed and constitutes an HTC well. The field testing of HTC was carried out at the Daebul test line. It is showed a potential for 80km/h. Soon a highspeed line test will be carried out at the Osong test line. HTC combined with tachometer can be used for ATO, ATP, and ATC application. Simple and low-cost HTC can be a key part of a railway signalling system.