New IRSE Blank formats for Control Tables

[Zaphod]

Attached are draft versions of the CT that the examiners have produced supplied to me by Mr A.

Hi,

Thanks for posting the draft control tables. I realise that these are not the responsibility of anybody here but I'd like to make a couple of comments nonetheless:

* The use of 'track' to denote a track circuit strikes me as a bit unofficial. I know signal engineers frequently refer to track circuits as just 'tracks' but this terminology wouldn't usually find its way onto a control table would it?

* "Tracks Occ for t" also seems like an unnecessary abbreviation. You could argue that candidates should be expected to know what it means but since there is plenty of space in the box, I think writing it out in full would be more sensible.

* I think "Indication" should be "Route Indication", unless the intention is that this box be used for other types of indication, such as "CD", "RA" or even "OFF". All the standard NR control tables state "Route Indication" anyway.

* Typo: in the first approach locking column, the word 'Route' is split over two lines.

* The 'first/second condition' concept for approach locking release is a sensible one, but this is not the way it is presented on the standard NR RRI control tables. On the SSI ones, it is presented similar to this but the fact that track circuit conditions are expected is made explicit.

* Is it clear enough that "Entrance/Route" means the candidate has to make a choice between specifying the entrance signal or the route name? OK, the latter piece of information will contain the former but in that case why include "entrance"? That word doesn't appear anywhere on 'real' control tables.

* The points table refers to "Train Detection". I think this is a good term to use but the terminology should be consistent across the two tables. (Choose "track circuits" or "train detection" but don't mix.)

* On a more general note, why not use a control table that looks like a control table? As it stands, the points table contains a very generous amount of space to write in the necessary information, whereas the route/aspect table's column fomat is potentially very cramped. Most people will surely learn control tables using something that looks more like the standard format than the format given here.

Alan