North American Railway Signaling - Modern Signaling in The U.S. and Canada

Modern Signaling in The U.S. and Canada

U.S. railroads have historically used a far greater variety of signaling systems than other countries. There have never been national standards for signal appearance and operation, so each of the hundreds of rail lines developed its own signaling techniques.

As Trains magazine describes:

This was no problem as long as crews stayed on home territory. But as roads merged, split, and spun off new short lines, and tenant operators such as Amtrak and regional commuter systems came into existence, train crews could find themselves on several different properties in the course of a work week.

The creation of Conrail in 1976 out of the remains of a half-dozen bankrupt railroads only made things worse. It was hard enough to rationalize the systems of the constituent companies, let alone interact with other operators over the dense Northeastern U.S. rail network.

After several years, the situation had become intolerable. Training costs were getting out of hand, because crews had to qualify separately on each road over which they might operate. Having to consult half a dozen rulebooks increased enormously the potential for a disastrous mistake.

As railroad companies eventually began to standardize their rule books via industry-wide committees, the implementation of signal systems between railroads became, if not standardized, at least more similar. Different legacy systems still in use, however, mean that some signal indications can be shown in several different ways.

Within the United States, each railroad operator formulates its own operating practices, subject to the regulations in Title 49 Part 236 of the Code of Federal Regulations). However, there are two major groups of railroads that have adopted common operating practices and therefore a common operating rule book. Major railroads on the East Coast have adopted the NORAC rules. Most railroads west of the Mississippi River, as well as the U.S. operations of the Canadian Pacific Railway, use the GCOR. Some large U.S. railroads, including CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the U.S. portion of the Canadian National do not subscribe to either NORAC or CROR and still use their own rule books.

The NORAC rule book illustrates all signal aspects and indications which may appear on track operated by member railroads. However, GCOR does not illustrate signal aspects and indications because of the lack of uniformity between the participating railroads. Signal aspect and indication illustrations instead appear in each railroad's system special instructions or operating timetable for the region or division where the aspects and indications apply. This practice is necessary due to the lack of uniformity in aspects between the multitude of railroads participating in GCOR, which includes a number of large systems created through merger.

All railroads operating within Canada, including Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, and up until recently, BC Rail, use the Canadian Rail Operating Rules (CROR). These rules are discussed within the forum of the Railway Association of Canada, which makes recommendations for changes to the Minister of Transport of Canada who then approves the rules issued by each company. Canadian Rule Books contain all hand signals, voice signals and flag signals as well as fixed trackside signal indications necessary for operation.

These rule books specify various methods of operation in both signaled territory and dark territory, where manual methods of granting track authority must be used.