block system

English

Noun

block system (plural block systems)

1. (rail transport) On railways, a system by which the track is divided into sections of three or four miles, and trains are run by the guidance of electric signals so that no train enters a section or block before the preceding train has left it.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 41:

     Signalling was by the standard 'block' system of the time, which prevents any two trains being on the same track section at once, but this was operated with boldness, with margins shaved. The Metropolitan would prove to have an excellent safety record nonetheless.

References

• “block system”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “block system”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)