Re: ATS Automatic Train stop, how does it work with steam engines
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 01-02-2021 - 10:59
ATS is the automatic setting of the train brakes whenever the E passes a signal displaying stop or stop and proceed without stopping. The earliest version used a tripper arm to break a glass tube on the roof of the locomotive cab to exhaust the brake pipe (PRR 1880). In later versions the tripper arm opened a valve connected to the brake pipe, and some transit system still use this system.
The intermittent inductive type, the kind you mentioned, used track magnets either between the rails or next to them. If a signal was red, the magnet was de-energized, so it induced a magnetic pulse in the receiver on the locomotive strong enough to dump the air brakes.
The SP used the National Safety Appliance Co's system (magnet between the rails).
> This today would be called a penalty application.
It always has been called a "penalty application".