A sensing system includes a leading sensor, a trailing sensor, and a route examining unit. The leading sensor is onboard a first vehicle of a vehicle system that is traveling along a route. The leading sensor measures first characteristics of the route as the vehicle system moves along the route. The trailing sensor is disposed onboard a second vehicle of the vehicle system. The trailing sensor measures second characteristics of the route as the vehicle system moves along the route. The route examining unit is disposed onboard the vehicle system and receives the first characteristics of the route and the second characteristics of the route to compare the first characteristics with the second characteristics. The route examining unit also identifies a segment of the route as being damaged based on a comparison of the first characteristics with the second characteristics.

This system (210) comprises an antenna (20) comprising a first loop (22) and a second loop (24) having different radiation patterns, the first and second loops being designed to generate first and second currents (I1, I2) when the antenna passes over a beacon situated on the line and an electronic processing subsystem designed to generate a location signal from said first and second currents. It is characterized by said subsystem being a first subsystem (230) for generating a first location signal (SL1), the system comprises a second subsystem (240) for generating a second location signal (SL2) from said first and second currents, and by said subsystem comprising an arbitration means (250) designed to generate a safety location signal (SLS) according to said first and second location signals.

A sensing system includes a leading sensor, a trailing sensor, and a route examining unit. The leading sensor is onboard a first vehicle of a vehicle system that is traveling along a route. The leading sensor measures first characteristics of the route as the vehicle system moves along the route. The trailing sensor is disposed onboard a second vehicle of the vehicle system. The trailing sensor measures second characteristics of the route as the vehicle system moves along the route. The route examining unit is disposed onboard the vehicle system and receives the first characteristics of the route and the second characteristics of the route to compare the first characteristics with the second characteristics. The route examining unit also identifies a segment of the route as being damaged based on a comparison of the first characteristics with the second characteristics.

An ATC antenna device provided on a body of a lead car to receive signals from outside. In the ATC antenna device, a pair of ATC antenna coils is disposed symmetrically with respect to a center line of the body as viewed in a traveling direction of the body, and the paired ATC antenna coils are connected in series and are of opposite phase. An ATC antenna support device is attached to the body to support the paired ATC antenna coils, and is disposed asymmetrically with respect to the center line.

A method for locating a rail vehicle with a rail vehicle position determination device on a route includes reading positions of reference marks, passed by the rail vehicle, along the route of the rail vehicle and evaluating additional distance information. In order to locate a rail vehicle with little expenditure and with comparatively high accuracy, in the case of a route with at least one track section bounded by axle counting sensor units and having an axle counting evaluator, information on the number of axles from the axle counting evaluator is transferred to the rail vehicle position determination device for determining the position of a rail vehicle. In the rail vehicle position determination device, the position of an axle of the rail vehicle corresponding to the information on the number of axles is determined using route topology data present there, and this position is used as a further reference mark.

A method operates an automatic train control system which has an electronic signal box, a balize and a frequency track circuit. To configure the train control system so as to be constructed from components of the European train control system and of the frequency track circuit without substantial additional development effort, the balize is acted upon by indicator messages of a first type of the electronic signal box via an actuation module for modular elements having an addressable memory for the number of currently free block route segments. Indicator messages of a third type are created from indicator messages of a second type. A functional relationship between the addresses of the memory and code information of the frequency track circuit is taken into account during the creation of the third indicator messages. A transmitter of the frequency track circuit is acted upon as a result of the third indicator messages.

The present invention relates to a train control device. The train control device sets an emergency brake pattern and a regular brake pattern as patterns of maximum speed according to the distance to a stopping point, and outputs a braking command when the train speed exceeds the maximum speed. Then, when the maximum speed defined in the regular brake pattern falls below a set speed, the maximum speed of the regular brake pattern is kept constant for a predetermined distance. After that, the maximum speed is gradually reduced toward a stopping point of the emergency brake pattern. This allows a train to make an approach to a fixed stopping position in an automatic train operation even when the fixed stopping position is located farther than a stopping point of the regular brake pattern, and excessive output of an emergency braking command based on the emergency brake pattern can be reduced.