Stepford County Railway Wiki

The Stepford County Railway Wiki has announced a new revamp project, giving the community a new way to give feedback for the project's future. You can read more here and participate on our Discord server.

READ MORE

Stepford County Railway Wiki
Register
Advertisement
AWS

AWS Warning in the Driver's HUD

AWS Equipment

AWS Equipment

The Automatic Warning System, abbreviated to AWS, is a system that was originally designed to reduce the probability of a SPAD after an APT introduction was decided against. When a train passes over an AWS sensor, either a bell/electronic ping or audible beep is played in the cab alerting the driver of the signal aspect ahead. On a decrease in line speed of more than ⅓, AWS is legally required to be fitted at a signal. SCR has replicated this by permanently setting some signals to Caution (single yellow) or Danger (red). There is a speed limit of 45 mph upon passing a single yellow (Caution) signal.

Sound Effect[]

Warning Proceed


Operational Use[]

In SCR, the driver will pass over a yellow sensor, which is an AWS ramp. If the signal aspect is not displaying a proceed (green) aspect, a loud beep is heard. To cancel the beep, drivers must press the Q button or click the yellow exclamation mark in the HUD that comes up to dismiss the warning, therefore silencing the beep. However, if the next signal displays a green (proceed) aspect, a bell (always an electronic ping in SCR) and the driver is not required to take any action.

An AWS warning is only played if the next signal is Preliminary Caution, Caution or Danger. A Caution aspect is placed at some speed restrictions to trigger a warning. For example, this is the case at Coxly approach where the speed limit decreases. When a driver does not take any action against the AWS warning, a red message box "Driver Alert Ignored" shows up and the emergency brakes are applied for 10 seconds. The AWS does not warn the player for speeding, this role is played by TPWS which was a system implemented in the 2000s after SPADs were still happening. TPWS is not a system designed to correct common driver failures (e.g. speeding) but to reduce the risk of any signal being passed at danger by stopping trains approaching a danger aspect only at up to 80 mph. This is within the standard 800 m overlap.

Faults and Failures[]

AWS was previously mostly realistic — a warning only was ever updated when you passed a signal. In an update where the new next signal GUI was introduced, AWS started warning people of a change of aspect triggering a warning no matter where the player was on the track. If the signal in front of them changed, they would be warned for this, as with if the signal cleared to a proceed aspect in front of them, unlike real life operation.

Advertisement