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Where to start - Printable Version

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+---- Thread: Where to start (/showthread.php?tid=1919)

Where to start - Peter - 22-04-2015

I have been contacted with the following question
Quote:I feel that  it is still very long long way to understand the topics in Module 5. Could you please help out the scope I should focus?

My plan is to take 3 questions from
1) TC calc

2) Point operation and maintenance

3) Axle counter and TC operation and maintenance

Plus ATP like ERTMS L0,1,2,3 if i can see such questions. Fault tree looks interesting to go as well.

There are a lot of things interesting and I do not know them very well(not depth enough).

I do not have much time left and I would like to know any technique or anything I can improve my knowledge quickly.

Could you please suggest anything the way to go forward?

Thanks in advance.
Indeed, six months before the exam may seem like a long time, but trying to get sufficient depth on a broad enough range in that time will be tough.
The option of narrowing down the field is reasonable but risky. The questions can of course be on anything in the syllabus so banking that there will be a question of a particular type can be risky, but then again, taking an educated guess about broad topics and sticking to a small (but more than three!) of them rather than trying to cover everything is sensible.
I feel that there is a lot of crossover between the knowledge of 1 and 3 above so if both did come up, great, but I suspect not. Similarly, 2 and 3 both have a maintenance thread.
Looking at a range of product specs for train detection or Point Operating Equipment would help and you would start to draw out the sort of things that are important. Do not get bogged down in the precise values of actual parameters for a given product, instead be able to explain why it is important that it is set correctly (eg a given product may need to be set for a 1.2ohm track shunt, but being able to explain the issues of it being too high or too low are, I think going to show you know more than being able to quote a value).
Also, being able to understand the elements of maintenance and the steps involved that are important irrespective of the actual equipment would do you well. For example the generic list
  • get authority to commence work
  • undertake measurements
  • identify fault component
  • find replacement
  • verify current installation state
  • replace component
  • check operation of replacement
  • return to service
works for any sort of equipment (and indeed industry) when you put some context to each of them for the given equipment that the question is asking you for. If you look at the things that an IRSE licence asks a maintainer or tester to be able to demonstrate and you cover those areas when you are answering a question about maintaining or testing equipment, you are not going to go far wrong. You could also look at your company's maintenance specs and, as with the important parameters for the equipment specs, you will start to see the common important process steps.

I have mixed feelings about fault tree - there is very little generally available on this as most of it tends to be hidden behind proprietary maintenance regimes. One good description and practice I did come across was on a course about the Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation. The parallel being that if you interchange the concept of the events with the possible faults, you get to the same sort of thing, so if you have done anything like that, apply that knowledge. The main reason for my misgiving is that I have seen many attempts where people have either ended up doing it too superficially or created such a monster that it does not fit. If you practice doing this an rough it out first having noted the points you are going to cover, you may get a balance.
I hope that has given you some pointers and aids you.
Peter