Deutsche Version dieses Postings
In 2022, in about two years, the line Freilassing–Berchtesgaden will be resignalled, and then be controlled via electronic interlockings. Until then, one can still marvel at the semaphores governing the trains on the line, and the necessary signalboxes with their mechanical frames.
At the terminal station Berchtesgaden it is somewhat cumbersome to get all signals on both sides of the platform shelter on a single picture—here is my attempt: There is a single-arm signal at track 1, two-arm signals at the other tracks, and in front of all stop signals, there are additional shunting signals:
All starting signals and shunting signals, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Also here one can see, like at
Bad Reichenhall, the combined signal drive for both the stop and shunting signal:
Shunting signal at starting signal P1, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The high starting signal P2 with a lattice mast is quite elegantly positioned right in front of the overpass:
Starting signal P2 with shunting signal, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The track plan of Berchtesgaden is quite interesting: Two tracks with reversal loops and an additional stub track for locomotives. And even though there are two-arm signals as starters, the home signal has only a single arm:
Track diagram, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Here are two of the starting signals and a train arriving from Salzburg:
Starting signals P1 and P2 with shunting signals, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Starting signals P1 and P2, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The following pictures show the interlocking frame. The first few pictures were taken during the departure of the train that had arrived a few minutes earlier. Below the block instruments, the route lever for the departure route p
1 out of track 1 has been reversed:
Route levers and block sequence locks, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The electric route lock is blocked and therefore shows a red face:
Block instruments, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
And the signal lever of starting signal P1 is now reversed, so that its single arm is raised (that is the reason for the raised small number one on the lever plate P11):
Signal levers, departure on track 1, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Lever frame, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Here are the complex mechanical block sequence locks, whose functions I should study more, and then describe them in detail:
Block sequence locks, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The signal is cleared, and the train leaves the station:
Signal P1 clear, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
After the train has departed, the line block instrument is blocked to indicate "line occupied" (and even though it says "Bischofswiesen" on the instrument's plate, we know that the current will travel all the way to Hallthurm, as
Bischofswiesen is currently switched out):
Operating the "line occupied" block instrument, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The levers have all been returned to their normal position:
Lever frame, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
And the starting signal shows its stop aspect:
Starting signals P1 and P2 with shunting signals, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
But let's enter the signal box again!
Here one can see the arrangement of the stop and shunting signal levers for the combined signal drives: The two levers are connected like those for a two-armed signal, i.e., there is only one double wire line to the signals, with the wire travel direction resulting in different aspects of the signals. Below the beams of the frame, one can see the pair of connection pulleys (the signal level of the starter is still reversed). The single rightmost lever is the home signal lever:
Signal levers, departure from track 1, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The normal position of both the stop and the shunting signal levers is upward. However, I think that this might have been different in earlier times, as one can see on some interesting sketches in a
thread on the "Drehschreibe Online" forum from 2014 discussing the older Bavarian signals.
More pictures of this interlocking: Here is a detail of the lever lock of the home signal lever. I am not sure what the purpose of this lock might be, as the interlocking still has its complete mechanical and electrical logic in place:
Lever lock, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The following picture shows the points levers, three of which – for points 3, 5 and 7 – have been labelled "RZ", meaning "Rationalisierter Zustand" or "rationalized state", which is management speak for "no longer used" or "decommissioned". The main reason is that works have started for the coming electronic interlocking, which requires new cable ducts; but the points are certainly unnecessary for the current operations, which almost exclusively use railcars. At the disused levers, the handle catches have been removed:
Points lever (RZ = decommissioned), Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The following detail shows that the catch drawbar has been tied down with wire straps. For whatever reason, the points were tied down differently:
- At points 3, on the very right, the drawbar is pulled up, which corresponds to a pulled catch handle (see my orange marks).
- At the other two points, the drawbar remains in the lower position (see my green marks):
Missing catch handles at points levers (RZ = decommissioned), Berchtesgaden, July 2020
My images of the locking bed are, as happens often with Einheit and Jüdel interlockings, plagued by mirror images on the bed's glass covers. The first one shows the block sequence lock drives, with electrical contacts at the back end:
Block sequence lock drives, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Block sequence lock drives, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The next picture shows the connecting rods from the levers to the locking bars:
Cranks of points levers, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
And here are a few pictures of the locking pieces and the locking bars. On the first one, the nearer locking bar is in the upper normal positions. The back one is half-lowered—it is the one of decommissioned points 3, where the catch handle drawbar is permanently pulled up. This half-position prevents, in principle, locking any route over these points—however, the locking pieces seem to havebeen removed also, so it is not clear why this bar would be lifted:
Locking pieces and locking bars, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Here is a detail of the back support of the lowered locking bar:
Locking pieces and locking bars, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
The next two pictures show some different locking pieces mounted on the route bars:
Locking pieces and locking bar, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Here is, at the very front, once more the lowered locking bar of points 3, then the bar of still operational points 4 and finally, behind it, the locking bar of decommissioned points 5, which is fixed in its upper position:
Locking pieces and locking bars, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Another picture of the block sequence lock drives and, at the lower margin, labels on the route bars:
Locking bed, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
And finally, here are two pictures of the single-arm home signal:
Home signal A, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
Home signal A, Berchtesgaden, July 2020
