A Train Describer Berth is a physical or imaginary field that contains the identity of a train. Signaller s use these to determine which train is where. Older signalboxes don't have train describers at all.
Almost every main signal has a describer berth, and some shunt signal are also provided with berths. Also, the Grey exit triangles at the end of bay platforms are usually provided with seperate a berth to the signal at the end of the platform. Similarly, some grey exit triangles in sidings have berths.
Train descriptions (i.e. their identity) step from berth to berth depending on the route set and/or other conditions.
Sometimes, particularly in big stations where divides and joins between trains take place, there are insufficient train describer berths to show all the trains in a particular platform. In such cases, the signaller has to remember which trains are where, such as by writing down on a piece of paper.
See also Queue Berth and Approach Berth .
If you have come accross the word BERTH or BERF in a timetable, please see this page .
Last edited by GeoffM on 15/09/2016 at 03:01