Banner Testing

Question:  How often do they perform a banner test and what do they check for when they do one?  How do they knock a signal down to do one? Is it remote or do they put an electrical charge onto the track to knock it down? Who performs it? A train master or yard master?

 

Answer:  A “banner test” is conducted to test a train crew’s compliance with Restricted Speed.  Restricted Speed is a speed that will permit stopping within one-half the range of vision.  It will also permit stopping short of a train, a car, an obstruction, a stop signal, a derail or an improperly lined switch.  It must permit looking out for broken rail.  It will not exceed 15 MPH.  To conduct this test, a trainmaster will place an obstruction (sometimes called a “banner”) on the track ahead of a train that is required to proceed at restricted speed on a main track.  The obstruction is large enough (with reflective tape for night tests) for a train crew to see in plenty of time to stop their train.  Similar tests are conducted in yards, where locomotive movement may not exceed 10 MPH.

 

A crew that fails a banner test (by allowing their train to come into contact with the banner) is immediately suspended from further train duty.  There will be due process and, depending upon many factors (such as a crew member’s safety record), appropriate discipline will be imposed.  It can (and probably should) be a career-ender for a repeat offender.  Both crew members are held equally responsible.      

 

Usually, a trainmaster is the one who conducts the test, but he or she may be joined by a road foreman of engines (who supervises engineers), or perhaps a more senior operations manager like a terminal superintendant or someone from division headquarters.  This is usually a two-person operation.  The test must also be carefully coordinated with the train dispatcher.

 

Banner tests are an important check of one of the most important operating rules.  However, they can disrupt traffic.  They require a trainmaster and others to venture away from a terminal (and their myriad other time-pressing duties).  They require coordination with the dispatcher.  Because of these factors, banner tests are probably the most elaborate safety check to accomplish and the hardest to successfully plan, schedule, and execute.  Most railroads have policies in place to ensure a minimum number of these checks is conducted in each territory each month.  Every crew member should expect to be tested at least once each year.

 

A test crew can “shunt” the track, which tells the track circuit the block is occupied, thus telling the block signal to indicate Stop or Restricted Proceed.  However, if they do this, they must coordinate this with the dispatcher.  You need to be very careful not to put an unexpected Stop or Restricted Proceed signal in front of an oncoming train operating on a Clear indication.  The train should be operating on nothing more favorable than Approach (which means medium speed—30 MPH—and prepared to stop at the next signal).  More often than not, the test crew will just collaborate with the dispatcher to line the route automatically, having the train crew progress through a block on an Approach indication then pass the next signal, which will be indicating Restricted Proceed.

 

Often, doing this will raise some suspicion among the train crew.  More often than not, a train crew will request and be granted by the dispatcher permission to hold at a Restricted Proceed signal for a more favorable indication (so they don’t have to creep along for several miles).  If the dispatcher denies the request and it’s not clear to the crew why, the train crew will be on alert for a banner test.  This isn’t so bad.  It would be just fine if every crew expected a banner test every time they are running at Restricted Speed.  They should also be expecting a train, a car, an obstruction, a stop signal, a derail, an improperly lined switch, or a broken rail   

 

Good train crews welcome the banner test, aren’t intimidated or put out by it.  They’ll run their lead locomotive right up to about ten feet before the banner, lean out the window and, with a grin, say something wise-ass to the trainmaster standing in the weeds trackside.  Usually, the test crew will board the locomotive and congratulate the crew.  The railroad is not interested in catching crews failing a banner test; they want to catch them all passing with flying colors.  

 

Great question.  Stay safe out there!  Here we go.

Passing a Red Signal

Question:  What gives a Trainmaster the decision to allow an engineer to pass a stop signal indicator at restricted speed?
  
Answer:  With one notable exception discussed at the end, the trainmaster really doesn’t figure into this situation. 

Now, let’s be clear.  If we are talking about an intermediate signal (typically the signals between control points, such as crossovers, sidings, junctions and other interlockings), the most restrictive indication is Restricted Proceed.  In this case, the train crew needs no permission to proceed at restricted speed past the signal.  (Restricted speed is a speed that will permit stopping within one-half the range of vision.  It will also permit stopping short of a train, a car, an obstruction, a stop signal, a derail or an improperly lined switch.  It must permit looking out for broken rail.  It will not exceed 15 MPH.)  In fact, if the crew does not wish to pass such a signal, they must get verbal permission from the train dispatcher to stop and hold for a more favorable indication.  This is not unusual on a mainline when one train is riding the heels of another, just two signal blocks behind (so they are seeing an Approach indication at every intermediate signal); if they catch up enough on an Approach block, their next intermediate signal will be a Restricted Proceed since the train ahead will not have cleared the next block.

If we are talking about an absolute signal (typically governing movement through control points), for which the most restrictive indication is Stop, then the crew must stop the train before the signal and contact the dispatcher.  The dispatcher may give the crew verbal permission to pass the Stop signal and proceed at restricted speed.  Usually, the reason for doing this (as opposed to holding for a more favorable signal indication) will be obvious to the train crew.  They’ll know the specific situation and it will make sense.

Typically, a trainmaster would not be involved in any of this.  However, a trainmaster may work with a dispatcher to arrange such a set up so the train crew can be tested on their compliance with Restricted Speed.  It’s pretty difficult to set this situation up in such a manner that the train crew is not at least a little suspicious and very wary that they are being tested.