Electronic device for the automatic control of a railway train

Claim 1

An electronic device for the automatic control of an electrically operated railway engine along a railway track said track being divided into several zones between geographical points along said track, in each of which the feed current of the motors can be cut off automatically before the engine reaches the end of each selected zone if a time interval which is a predetermined function of the distance counted from the beginning of said selected zone becomes greater than the real time, said device comprising: first means for registering the distance of the engine from the beginning of each selected zone; first means for counting the distance run from the beginning of the first zone of said track; means for comparing the distance run with the distance registered by said first registering means; means operatively associated with said comparing means for generating a pulse when said train reaches said distance counted from the beginning of each zone; a first counting means operatively connected to the output of said pulse generating means for setting said first time counting means to zero and for indicating a time which is a predetermined function of the distance from the beginning of a corresponding zone; second means for registering in said first counting means the time representing the initial value of the function for the distance from the beginning of a zone; means for feeding during the run from one distance to another, said first counting means with pulses representing the values of said predetermined function for generating a time signal means for counting pulses and generating a signal corresponding to the real time; and further comprising means for comparing the real time signal with said time signal and means generating a pulse to cut off the current when the signals indicated by said first and second counting means become equal.