Have you ever sat on a train and wondered how all these tons of steel are moved safely across the tracks or who actually makes sure your train ends up at the correct station? If so, you've come to the right talk!
The German railway system is a fascinating mix of traditional infrastructure, safety-critical logic and increasingly modern systems.
This talk introduces the basics behind it all, from tracks, switches, signals and balises to interlocking systems, train protection and railway communication.
We will look at how safety is built into the systems, why trains do not need speeding tickets, what GSM is still doing in modern rail operations and which protocols may appear when railway technology meets the network stack.
The goal of this talk is to make the hidden systems behind everyday train travel visible and to get the community interested in exploring railway technology.
My rough idea for the talk would be as follows:
- What Train Infrastructure^C Dreams are Made Of: The Basic Building Blocks of Railway Infrastructure
- Track Switches
- Signals
- Balises
- Track Vacancy Detection
- Hot Box Detection Systems
- Why it is hard to Crash a Train: Interlocking Systems and Safety Logic
- Different generations of interlocking systems
- Safety principles
- Train Control Systems: Why Trains do not need Speeding Tickets
- Intermittent train control
- Continuous train control
- ETCS (European Train Control System)
- Long live GSM(-R): The Mobile Network behind Railway Operations
- Details on the relevance and functionality of GSM-R (GSM for Rail)
- Differences between GSM and GSM-R
- Spawning Wireshark: Examples of Bits and Bytes in the Wild
- RaSTA
- SAHARA
- SBS
- SCI-Protocols
- Selected Examples of Developments to come
- Automated train operation
- FRMCS
- Closing Thoughts