What's this?


Burlington Bob

Burlington Bob

Well-Known Member
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The BNSF finished installing remote turnouts at Adair Siding on the Beardstown Sub last fall. There are boxes labeled "shunt" and they are on the sides of both tracks at both ends of the siding. Anybody know what these are for?
 
I was guessing that RCPS might stand for Remote Controlled Passing Siding but now know that it's for Remote Controlled Power Switch. The BNSF has been working on installing these on several sidings between Beardstown and Bushnell, IL. I don't know if there are any south of Beardstown or not. My guess is that there are but I haven't been down that way for awhile and the roads that I normally drive are not close to the tracks. The tracks between Quincy and Galesburg are CTC. Where the track branches south at Bushnell to Beardstown and on south to Paducah, KY is controlled by track warrant.

Thanks for the link to that article, Gary. I found it very informative and have bookmarked it for future use. Still waiting to find out what the boxes are for and I hope somebody can help with that.
 
Today, my wife and I drove past the Adair Siding and I counted 20 of these boxes at various locations on both the siding track and the main. They are grouped together in some places with up to five in one place, just a couple in another and others by themselves. There also doesn't seem to be any pattern to their placement. This is making me more and more curious.
 
A shunt is the part of the track where a car or locomotive will trip the sensor, for example to start the crossing lights at a level crossing.

Obviously it has some connection to the RCPS, probably to ensure the switch doesn't operate when a train is passing over it.


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That's another bit of information to add to the puzzle. One of the big mysteries now is the placement of the boxes and the way they are grouped and why there are so many. Thanks, Bob.
 
We've got a bunch of those boxes at tower a2, where I work. They're used for track circuits. We had a major issue with some going bad this past week. Caused a few delays and made work a little difficult. It's basically a relay box from what I was told.


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FCL2117 said:
A shunt is the part of the track where a car or locomotive will trip the sensor, for example to start the crossing lights at a level crossing.

Obviously it has some connection to the RCPS, probably to ensure the switch doesn't operate when a train is passing over it.


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Actually trains shunt the track all the time. It's not just a spot in the tracks. What happens is the wheels on the train create a short causing a track circuit to light up. With crossing gates, there's a sensor that the train trips to get the gates to go down.


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