I bought a house recently where the previous owner either decided or was forced to leave behind a lot of old belongings and trash. Among the trash, I found what I originally thought was audio equipment in a cardboard box in the shop. Upon further research, I have come into possession of a VIU16I Vital Interface Unit made my Safetran electronics, along with what appears to be a signal booster and an antenna. In addition to those 3 main items, all the wiring, bus bars, connectors, and a switch panel appear to be neatly stored in order to hook up all the electronics. I will try and attach some pictures below of what I have. What I know so far is there does not appear to be any market for these items, although when they were new they were worth a substantial amount of money. I am a diesel mechanic and don't plan on hijacking any trains in the near future, so I have no need for any of it. What I don't know is the following. (A) Am I even aloud to have these? (B) Is there someone out there who would be interested in owning these? (C) What are they worth?

Hoping someone here can either give me some information or point me in the right direction. Anything is much appreciated.


As I can not post pictures directly to here, this is a drive folder I created with the images inside.


https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

This is a fifteen year old cab signal interface module. The current version is "20" series. It is used with ACSES and other cab signal systems. Due to its age and the integration of ACSES with PTC, its features may be outdated now.

A 15-year old item of railway electronics sitting in a box at this point, with the changes that have been made in the industry, may not be useful. It may have been a defective unit that was not repaired, or a spare that was not applied.

No idea whatsoever as to value or current use.

A "20" series manual is available here:

https://usermanual.wiki/m/314fc9e5bff6f ... eed0ff.pdf

PC

Great information, thank you sir! do you know of anywhere I could list this stuff for sale besides Ebay? if there is no interest or it holds no value ill most likely just end up disposing of it or gifting it to an enthusiast or someone who just enjoys looking at it.

Thanks!

Thank you, TruckMechanic2001 for this interesting post! It's always amazing to come across something like this.

If you are interested in donating it, I suggest contacting the Illinois Railway Museum - https://www.irm.org/ . They have Amtrak AEM-7 945, that was equipped with this generation of ACSES equipment at one time. Your device would help in telling the story of the evolution of the ACSES system and PTC, generally.

I would "second" Thomas's suggestion. The best use for the device at this point would probably be at a railroad museum for accurate restoration of equipment or signals. There have been so many safety system modifications since the adoption of PTC that the component might be outdated.

PC

Technically, ACSES (I or II) isn't a cab signal system but an intermittent position tracking system which uses transponders between the rails -- sort of like the ATS of 100 years ago.

The old GRS ATS system conveys signal information to the train intermittently, usually at the signal. If the signal is clear a wayside inductor is energized and induces a current in a shoe on the locomotive. If the induced current is what the on board hardware expects, the train may proceed. If there is no induced current or the wrong one, a whistle sounds and the engineer must pull a lever to forestall a penalty brake application.

CSS or Cab Signal System has a current in the rails that is continuously picked up by a bar ahead of the first axle. The carrier frequency carried pulse codes that are interpreted on the locomotive, MU car or cab car to permit certain speeds. If the signal aspect changes to a slower one, a whistle or beeper sounds which must be acknowledged by the engineer. On board hardware compares the authorized speed with the train speed and if the train speed is exceessive, the engineer must apply the brakes to bring the speed down to the signal speed.

Note that neither of these involves speed restrictions for curves, bridges, maintenance or lack of maintenance (for those who remember Penn Central).

ACSES fills that need. The train communicates through a network of balises (transponders) that identify the train location and transmit current speed restriction information, which can be updated by radio as well. The train stores the location given by the balises and continuously updates it based on a wheel revolution count. So the train always knows where it is.

The system displays two speed limits, both CSS and ACSES and the engineer must comply with the lower and the hardware will enforce the lower limit.

The Wikipedia article is pretty good:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_ ... ent_System

Phil Mulligan

> The old GRS ATS system conveys signal information to the train intermittently, usually at the signal.

ATS, which is inherently intermittent in nature, dates from 1880 in the form of brake pipe tripping devices on the signals and locomotives.

ATS which could also display indications in the cab was developed by the Simmen Signal Co for electric interurban lines in 1907. The indications (and slowing/stopping requirements) were updated each time a pick-up shoe mounted on the leading truck passed over a special contact rail, usually at a signal, which was wired into the wayside signal control circuits. Simmen also developed a speed sensor (which it called a "speed governor") to enforce speed requirements, and GRS purchased a license to manufacture and use it.

Between 1910 and about 1922 there were about 10 different ATS system on the market, and the "GRS ATS" type system you mention was also produced by National Safety Appliance, Sprague, US&S, Regan, and Richards. While they were all operated by intermittently by trackside inductors (usually at each signal), there was bit of variation in their operational details.

"Continuous" cab signals are a result of research and development by the signal companies and railroads, with the first installation dating to 1926. For cab signals, coded pulses are imposed in the track circuit, and the track circuit must use AC in order to be detected inductively by pick-up coils in front of the locomotive's leading axle. The locomotive apparatus then decodes these pulses to determine what indications to display in the cab, and there is speed enforcement. "Continuous" means that the codes in the track, and therefore the display in the cab, can be updated at any time, rather than at the moments the locomotive passes the inductors.

ASES (I and II) are throwbacks to intermittent methods because they depend on balises which are placed at intervals between the rails, either permanently or temporarily, with electronics on the locomotive to qurey them. These are essentially large RFID tags, and the ASES apparatus on the locomotive uses their IDs and locations to calculate where the train is as it travels along the RR, what speed it should be going at any given location, and when it should slow down (or stop). The system is separate from CSS because it has no track circuit occupancy detection.

While CSS has had a built-in speed component from day one, it is more "entire block" in nature and impractical for enforcing speed restrictions for things like curves within the block without a lot of extra apparatus. This also makes it impractical for enforcing slow orders and track gang limits. Hence ASES, at least for Amtrak on the Corridor. ASES is based on ERTMS, the "European Rail Traffic Management System".

The speed control function of CSS was optional. In the 1920's PRR had opted out contending its budget could install CSS on more lines without speed control and the ICC allowed it.

In the early 1950's, after multiple fatal rear-end collisions in CSS territory, ICC ordered PRR to install Speed Control on all passenger locomotives. Not all K4's got speed control and those that did ran on the NY&LB. All passenger diesels and electrics (as well as the E44's!) were equipped. Some MP54's had CSS and some of those had SC. All the MP85's were equipped.

Phil Mulligan

Both the intermittent style (the inductor) and the continuous style (coded track circuit) were called, at least at the time, "cab signals" There are some interesting papers available online during the great ICC "cab signal bake-offs" ca. 1922. Some of these are really wild!

Branford has in its collection pieces of a Sprague intermittent train control system. Sprague opted for a strangely mechanical solution to the question of how to create the "penalty application" for failing to acknowledge a cab signal drop: in Sprague's system, the typical H-6 automatic brake valve is replaced with a modified unit where another section is interposed between the handle key and the rotary valve inside. The device mechanically moves the brake valve!

Here is a related question, and I think I know the answer: many railway museums have functional wayside signal systems, and some (IRM comes to mind) have other oddities such as CTC systems. Is anyone running coded track circuits that work with cab signal equipped locomotives in their collection?