Reversible Operation of Trains.

Of the many operating methods utilised with success in recent years to give improved train working, few are of greater interest than that which concerns the employment of a single track for the passage of trains in either direction, or what is generally known as reversible operation. For many years reversible operation has been employed to advantage on what is now the Southern Railway of England, between Victoria Station and Battersea Park Junction, and between London Bridge Station, Old Kent Road Junction and Bricklayers’ Arms Junction. Recently the idea has been taken up by the Great Southern Railway of Ireland. In this case the new working is associated with conversions of double-line sections into single tracks in cases where the traffic handled did not justify the existence of a double track route. The arrangement is confined to passing places, usually located at a double-platform station, but it is anticipated that considerable extensions of the system will shortly be made into the open track.

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In the United States, a most interesting system of reversible line working is in operation on the Missouri Pacific Railway between Kirkwood, Montana, and Jefferson City. This is a double track route, and trains are run in either direction on each track as circumstances necessitate. Signals are installed for both directions on each line, coloured light signals being employed for right-hand running and semaphores for left-hand running to facilitate the correct reading of signals by drivers and to prevent confusion. Double track sections of up to five miles have their switches at either end worked from a single signal box, with mechanical operation for the near-by points and signals, and electrical operation for those located at the far end of the section. On longer sections, ranging up to as long as seventeen miles, there have been provided scissors crossings, each approximately in the middle of a double-track section, and worked from a cabin controlling train movements on both tracks, and operating the remote switches at the two ends of the double-track section. In this way it is possible to utilise the sections as running loops, sidings, or main running roads.