Unlike modern railways today, trains back then only have a single track. How does the directions work, like how do they know if there’s an incoming train and what would they do? Does head on collisions happen?
In: Technology
There were double tracks back then as well and even now there are lots of single track still in use. But the history of rail signaling is quite interesting. The first signal systems were using a baton. Rail stations used to have police men that were in charge of the safety. These were equipped with batons even though they normally had no use of them. So to remind themselves of which track were in use they would hand the baton to the conductor of the train. When the train arrived at the next station the conductor would give the baton to the police officer stationed there. This would indicate to him that the track was clear and he could send a train down the track with the baton. This system was actually quite safe and is still in use some places today.
However it did lack efficiency as it would often be the case that a train had to wait at a station even though the track ahead was clear because the baton happened to be at the other station. So when the telegraph were invented this was installed along railways to allow the signal men to communicate with each other to coordinate traffic. And even though this was a far more efficient system it was easy for accident to happen.
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