LOWCOST ELECTRONIC INTERLOCKING SYSTEM FOR THE RAILWAY STATION ELEMIR

Abstract

This paper describes the low cost Electronic Interlocking -EI system installed at the railway station Elemir in Serbia. The system is developed and produced by Signalling & Control d.o.o. Belgrade. EI is a computer system based on the PLC family -HiMax, produced by the German company HIMA Paul Hildebrandt GmbH. The system is verified and approved for use on Serbian Railways by the Directorate for Railways of the Republic of Serbia and has the highest safety integrity level -SIL4 in accordance with European railway standards -CENELEC. Elemir EI is a standardized, modular and scalable system configured to the specific track layout of the Elemir railway station. The operational, functional and traffic requirements and safety principles of the previous, outdated Elemir electro-relay interlocking system are converted to general interlocking software of the Elemir EI. The track layout dependent data and particular interlocking requirements, which are presented in a form of a conventional control table are standardized and converted into a new form of the computer control table. This table is used as a simple data file for further computer processing and formal proving. Also, an advanced method of representing the layout of a railway station for HMI purposes in accordance to the standardized Catalogue of symbols of Serbian Railways is used. The described approach enabled a fast and efficient development and implementation and contribuited to the low cost realisation of the complete Elemir EI.