The Fibre Optic Railway Detonator or Optonator!
03 Aug 2005
Detonators are dangerous things - so unstable that they have to be disposed of after a time and replaced even if they haven’t been used. When they are used, i.e. exploded, the debris flies all over and pieces of the casings can cause injury if you are standing too close!
A few years ago draft Rule Book changes were issued but withdrawn at the eleventh hour. The use of detonators to provide a ‘belt and braces’ or ‘last line of defence’ is still a tradition and although aware of the dangers, track workers were reluctant to move on from traditional protection methods. They were even more reluctant to agree to the idea that they rely solely on the fixed signals to stop rail vehicles entering possessions.
Low cost modern disposable device
Now in the light of recent accidents, not least the tragedy at Tebay last year, Park Signalling have taken a fresh look at the problem and invented a low cost modern disposable device, which could be used to reinforce or even in some circumstances, replace the detonator. They have studied the testimony of one of the work colleagues of those who died at Tebay. He commented that, whilst the wagon rolled over the stop board and detonators, that was two miles from where the men were working and hence was ‘too far for them to hear the bangs.’
Fibre optic based rail vehicle sensor
Park Signalling’s new invention aims to reinforce or replace detonators with a fibre optic based rail vehicle sensor, housed in a railway detonator casing. The aim is to provide advance warning to the site of work, of any incursion into the possession, without using an explosive device capable of causing injury through flying debris. The remote sensor unit shown in the diagrams, trigger an alarm, which can be arranged to sound, wherever the local monitor unit has been set up. The equipment is designed to be fail safe; if the remote unit or indeed any part of the system is damaged or disabled in any way, the warning will sound.
Improve track worker safety
Park Signalling are confident that their equipment, which they have named the ‘Optonator,’ will provide a low cost, expendable fibre optic addition or alternative to the old fashioned and hazardous detonator, which will improve track worker safety.
With the number of items of rail mounted plant and equipment we now use, not to mention the expansion in the availability of more and more highly productive road/rail machines, this invention must be seen as a welcome and complementary potential advance in track worker safety. Maybe the days of the detonator are numbered at long last!