This Technical Specification defines, for the purpose of ensuring compatibility between rolling stock and axle counters, the electromagnetic interference limits for rolling stock and the measurement and evaluation methods to verify rolling stock emissions and demonstrate compatibility with the interference limits.
Compliance with the limits for rolling stock is necessary for a reliable and safe operation of the railway.
The interference limits have been defined for application to interoperable rolling stock. They are for a set of preferred types of axle counters which are defined by Railway Infrastructure Managers for use on new signalling projects on interoperable lines. If the interoperable line over which the rolling stock is intended to run is equipped with an older version or non-listed axle counters then National Notified Technical Rules apply. It is not the intention of this Technical Specification to mandate any particular type of train detection but it is expected that because the list of selected types and their limits for compatibility are drawn on the basis of established performance criteria, the trend will be that newly signalled interoperable lines are fitted with types which meet the compatibility limits published in the Technical Specification and measured in accordance with the test specification in Annex C.
To ensure an adequate operational availability, a margin of 9 dB between the measured axle counter limit and the limit for rolling stock has been applied. If rolling stock does not comply with the defined limits, the availability of the axle counters may be reduced. The measurement condition for railway vehicles with voltage DC-link are provided as an example.
NOTE 1 The influence from metal parts or inductively coupled resonant circuits on the vehicle, eddy current brakes or magnetic brakes is out of the scope of the Technical Specification. Compatibility is established through individual testing according to EN 50238-1 or National Notified Technical Rules.
NOTE 2 Wheel sensors and crossing loops are not part of this Technical Specification.
As the electromagnetic interference coupling between rolling stock and axle counters is multidimensional and difficult to handle, a proposal is made in this Technical Specification for frequency management with fixed frequency ranges (and limits) in Annex B informative, to allow for future developments of rolling stock and axle counters with the aim to decrease the development risk and to minimize the homologation effort for both, rolling stock and axle counters.