"It's illogical, captain"

As if we haven't got enough things to try and get our heads around, I managed to get myself into a proper tizzy over some railway terminology.

Today we were covering the various types of speed restrictions that can be imposed, part of which is to learn about the different signs used to denote these and their expected layout. I wasn't too worried about these sessions as they had already been covered in some depth on induction and felt pretty confident that I had them taped.

All was going swimmingly until the trainer started talking about things being "in rear of" or "ahead of" certain objects. At this point alarm bells started going off inside my head, as I knew that the things that we being described as being "ahead of" something in fact appeared after whatever fixed point was being referred to, and those that were described as being "in rear of" something would be reached first. Having shaken my head a few times to see if these seemingly contradictory statements would somehow arrange themselves into a sensible pattern I felt I had to ask. "Please sir", I heard myself say. "Please can you explain that again."

Well, blow me if he wasn't right. It turns out that things appearing "in rear of" a certain point are in fact in front of them, and those that are "ahead of" are actually behind. So, an AWS magnet for a signal is some 200 yards "in rear of" the signal, but the SPAD indicator that catches you the other side is "ahead of" the signal. When pressed, the trainer could only surmise that these are terms introduced by signallers. Be that as it may, it struck me as a daft convention given that trackside features such as signs and signals are actually laid out for the benefit of drivers. It would make far more sense if things that you reach first, like an AWS magnet, were described as "ahead of" the signal because it's in front of it and that anything you pass after whatever fixed point is referred to as being "in rear of" it.

But then I guess that's far too sensible.