ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

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the dark lord
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ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by the dark lord »

For about 35 years since being a kid I have wondered what is inside the small lockable panel often along side a red "power light" on the control cubicle for many traffic signals.

I have always assumed it was a panel for manual operation can anyone confirm or have any pictures?
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nowster
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by nowster »

Welcome long time lurker!

There's likely to be a microcontroller of some sort, plenty of relays (or nowadays triacs), and for linked systems in a city, some form of communications back to base.
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traffic-light-man
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by traffic-light-man »

I assume you're referring to the manual control panel on the signal cabinet, rather than the controller itself? The red light is actually a status indicator, displaying detector or lamp faults when lit.

I thought there were plenty of pictures kicking around in our gallery, but I think they all seem to miss the manual panel.

Here's a crop of one inside a Siemens cabinet with a ST900 controller. As you can see, it primarily allows the signals to be turned off (and on, of course), the operation mode to be changed locally, and the various programmed stages to be called manually by the operator using the numerical keypad, including an all-red.

Seldom seen these days is a person actually operating the signals on local control at the cabinet, though I remember Merseyside Police operating several sites near to the football grounds on local control after football matches well in to the 90s.
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the dark lord
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by the dark lord »

nowster wrote: Sat Jan 16, 2021 13:58 Welcome long time lurker!
Cheers. Thought I'd posted here before, but apparently not.

traffic-light-man wrote: Sat Jan 16, 2021 13:58 I assume you're referring to the manual control panel on the signal cabinet, rather than the controller itself? The red light is actually a status indicator, displaying detector or lamp faults when lit.



Did not know that!

I thought there were plenty of pictures kicking around in our gallery, but I think they all seem to miss the manual panel.

Here's a crop of one inside a Siemens cabinet with a ST900 controller. As you can see, it primarily allows the signals to be turned off (and on, of course), the operation mode to be changed locally, and the various programmed stages to be called manually by the operator using the numerical keypad, including an all-red.

Seldom seen these days is a person actually operating the signals on local control at the cabinet, though I remember Merseyside Police operating several sites near to the football grounds on local control after football matches well in to the 90s.
Thanks that is exactly the panel I was thinking of.

I saw one open with a bunch of keys in it when I went past some roadworks a few weeks ago. I think the lights seemed to go to all red while they manoeuvred the planing machine around the junction I assume someone was pressing the buttons then.

I also noticed following a car wiping out a cubicle for a simple pelican that even simple ped crossing seem to have a fibre Comms link.

Is that common? Are they really pushing that much data around that they needs fibre connection?
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traffic-light-man
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by traffic-light-man »

The comms connection was traditionally more common within urban environments as a way of providing coordinated and adaptive control remotely, but given the added benefit that comms allows sites to be monitored remotely for various faults, I think it's becoming fairly common now for comms to be present even if there isn't the necessity to influence the operation of the site remotely.

Originally, dedicated networks or telephone lines were used for comms, but in more recent times cellular or IP based comms are common, presumably why the fibre line was present in your example.

Liverpool had its own dedicated network for traffic control, which was implemented as early as 1968, the copper connections of which are and were housed in these dedicated cabinets, with many still surviving. The 'WATC' (Wide Area Traffic Control) network has been upgraded to some extent over the years to use fibre in order to allow the extensive CityWatch CCTV system to use it, but the signal equipment was still using the legacy copper connections on-street. I believe Dynniq have recently completed an upgrade to allow all of the signal sites to move from the legacy system to IP over fibre for comms.
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Gareth
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by Gareth »

What are all the modes available in that Siemens controller? I can't read them all.
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traffic-light-man
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by traffic-light-man »

Gareth wrote: Sat Jan 16, 2021 15:52 What are all the modes available in that Siemens controller? I can't read them all.
Control modes are, top to bottom, 'Normal', 'Manual', 'Fixed Time', 'VA' (Vehicle Actuation) and 'Cable-less Link' (CLF).
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by Gareth »

Thanks. What does lamp test involve?
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traffic-light-man
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by traffic-light-man »

Nothing too exciting, it just tests the indicator lamps on the panel along with the fault lamp.
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by darkcape »

This Peek control panel also has UTC and Hurry Call modes, no idea what would happen if you engaged any of them though?

Great fun doing signals on manual control, especially when traffic is flowing better than when on VA!
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traffic-light-man
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by traffic-light-man »

This brand new PTC-1 was switched on today, so I thought I'd grab a shot of the manual panel on these. More buttons than darkscape's example, but as you can see, the basics are the same.
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by darkcape »

traffic-light-man wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 20:27 This brand new PTC-1 was switched on today, so I thought I'd grab a shot of the manual panel on these. More buttons than darkscape's example, but as you can see, the basics are the same.
Simon can you explain what cableless-linking is please? And the F buttons are for in your example? Does F5 refresh everything :P
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Re: ATS (Traffic Light Control) Cubicle small panel.

Post by traffic-light-man »

CLF always sounded like some kind of IT-heavy wireless comms system to me (even though it pre-dates that kind of tech), but it is actually essentially a set of fixed time plans across a network of junctions, with their time clocks synchronised by an external influence, I believe typically being the 50Hz frequency of the power supply. Each controller has offsets from the 'master', which means they achieve a synchronisation (if the plans are correct and current), and the plans can vary depending on time of day and what day it is.

As for the F-buttons, I believe they're user-definable like the 'SW' buttons on the Siemens controller.
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