German Hl Signals

Alexander Matheisen
Mon, 29 Dec 2014 23:58:15

Hl signals are main and combined light signals used by 'Deutsche Reichsbahn' (predecessor of 'Deutsche Bahn' in the German Democratic Republic). OpenRailwayMap now renders them (example).

It took a while to implement this signal system because it has a lot of different views it can show. Hl signals have two signal functions in one signal. The upper two lights show which signal the train driver has to expect. The middle red light is used for Hp 0 (formerly known as Hl 13), its replacement light is located at the lower right. The lower left light is yellow and turned on if the signals shows a reduced speed. This is 40 km/h by default and can be increased by a yellow (60 km/h) or green (100 km/h) bar below the signal.

But now back to map. Icons at OpenRailwayMap should show which signals the signal can show. With H/V semaphore and light signals we introduced the convention that a signal showing stop (red light) means that we do not have information about its possible signals.

Block signals can only show Hl 1, Hl 10 and Hl 13 (i.e. they cannot show Hl 2, Hl 3a and Hl 3b. They are rendered as Hl 1 (green light if signal has no distant signal function) or Hl 10 (if the signal is combined signal).

If the signal cannot show a green or yellow bar, it is rendered as Hl 3a¹ (green light at the top, yellow light below)/Hl 12a² (both lights yellow).

If the signal has a light bar but can only show a yellow one (green lights missing), the signals is rendered as Hl 3b¹ (green light at the top, yellow below, yellow bar at the bottom)/Hl 12b² (both single lights yellow, yellow bar below).

If the signal has two light bars, the signals is rendered as Hl 2¹ (green light at the top, yellow below, green bar at the bottom)/Hl 11² (both single lights yellow, green bar below).

Hl signals which are only distant signals (not main or combined signals) are rendered as Hl 1 with sign Ne 2 (distant signal sign).

Apart from two exotic German signals sytems – Sk and Sv system, we now have all signal systems used in Germany at OpenRailwayMap. If you want to see your local signal system, provide us following information:

a German or English description of your signal system (we will suggest you a tagging scheme based on it)

suitable signal icons as SVG files

suggestions for rendering rules (you do not have to provide MapCSS)

¹ signals which are not distant signals, too

² combined signals