Railway 101

This is a page that intends to teach non-railfan players some basic knowledge of railways. Sometimes, we all need to learn some new things, and for such a simulator, it is really important. For current stages, we can see many different manuals. They are very good, and very detailed, and each community had their own manuals already. I think I cannot contribute more in this field, but suddenly I realize all of these manuals already have a basic requirement: you know something about railways. But obviously, that is not true for everyone.

You see, there is no such preset questions when buying SimRail, and yep, looks like we even don't think a non-railfan would buy this. But as they did, we cannot just simply say "Hey you are not a railfan, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" And that's definitely not good for a game's development. Therefore, I decided to write this page, and later may edited it into a book or a manual to refer to.

Chapter 1: Railway History

Where it begins...

So, what is railway? Well, if you just see the surface, it is just some wood sticks lying under two steel rails. But I think maybe let's look back at its history.

In the past, we need to move something very heavy, and we don't really want to break our backs for sure. Then, someone came up with an idea: what about build a "way" for them? Yes, they did. But that's not railway in its modern concept. Later some guy just bring something new from a boiled kettle, and somebody find out this black thing, which we call them coal, can work as a source of energy. And we need to transport them, probably inventing something powered by such thing, and some guy named George Stephenson did that. Train was born.

(Well, *nerd face*, actually... he invented locomotive, train's name came later, if you are interested, Google can help you to figure out the difference between these two words.)

Ok, later we think this can also transport people, so we build carriages. And now railways are extending, population is growing as industrialization begins, we need more trains to transport, and then more, then more, then... Oh, looks like we just let two trains crash into each other, there are no more spaces now, and we shouldn't let them kiss each other's butt for sure. What shall we do?

The Almighty Power of Illuminati Your Eyes

Eyes on the road! This is what we always heard when we are driving cars, right? Yes, they think the same. How about just let the drivers see the road all the time, and breaks when it notices something. Yes, this works at beginning, but later we think trains are too slow, let's speed it up, and load more things, and become more heavier... Oh, now you need 800 meters to stop this thing, because someone in history whose head got hit by an apple (at least rumor said that) said,

Every object perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, except insofar as it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon.

An easier version:

The heavier you are, the longer distance you need to stop. I think maybe this picture can help you understand:

Fig. 1-1 Newton 1st Law Simplified

So, we need longer distance to stop, but can human eyes actually see that far? Well, no. And sometimes this happens:

Fig. 1-2 A crash caused by driving on sight

Watch Your Time

Then, is there any other way to complete such task? Well, we don't only have one crew on the train. Maybe we can test their ability for running, that's what we did at first. Like:

Fig. 1-3 One with superpower (joke)

But you know, not all of us can become sportsman, and you cannot just jump off a train without getting hurt. How about record average running time, and then let trains to depart according to it? Yep, they did this:

Fig. 1-4 Time Interval

But sometimes, such thing may happen:

Fig. 1-5 A comic for some operation failure

Sometimes, such thing may also happen...

Fig. 1-6 When one man falls asleep

Also, we need more trains as people were born so quickly after many cities were build. Adding trains is good, but not good if they started to kiss each other again. So, we need a new way to do that.

Time to Block!

So... Instead of time, there is another thing can be used to make some separation - distance. But then there is another problem: railways are not always straight, there are some curves and turning points. Well, maybe we can try this thing?

Fig. 1-7 Why directly measure the distance is stupid?

Well, no. First, we don't have rulers that long. Second, we don't have one guy who can shout loud enough for a person to hear from over 10km away. Also, as mentioned before, railways are not always straight lines, they have curves. So we cannot just directly let two guys measuring the distance of trains all the time. We need another way.

So, what would you do when you will let someone far away know where you are? In modern days, we just use Internet, send a message and here we go. At that time, there is no such thing, but we do have telegraphs. And they cannot be something portable for sure. So, we need to do this.

Fig. 1-8 Report train position using telegraphs

And then, signalers need to be responsible for trains. Because, they allowed another train to enter the section they are in charge. And through this procedure, we only let one train to enter such section. This is what we called "block" in railway transportation. We blocked the way for other trains until one train leaves a certain section. And we create section by diving the whole route into different parts.

So, now we can operate like this:

Fig. 1-9 Normal situation for signaler dispatching a train

And this can also prevent some situations like:

Fig. 1-10 When one signaler fell asleep...

Say Hello to Signals!

there is another thing to consider: trains are moving, and we don't have phones at that time, so how are we supposed to tell drivers what to do? Well, we use our hands.

Fig 1-11 Hand signals

But then there is another problem. We cannot just let guys standing 24/7 for giving signals, unless you are operating the Gulag Railway. So, we need something to help out such situation. So, we invent signals. Just like traffic lights, we first hang different colors of lamps to make it shine.

Well, if you have opened your room lights in daylight, I guess you already know what would be the problem - they're way too invisible when sun is shinning everywhere. We need something more obvious to show the signals. And then one guy come up with an idea: Hey, what about using some boards? Yes, we did, they are called semaphore signals.