The Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC) was developed in the late 1980s by the

British Rail Research Division The British Rail Research Division was established in 1964 directly under the control of the British Railways Board, moving into purpose-built premises at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby. The intention was to improve railway reliability a ...

for UK-based

railway signalling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormo ...

centres, although variations exist around the world. It is the most widely deployed VDU based signalling control system in the UK, with over 50 workstations in control centres that manage many of the most complex and busy areas of the network. IECC consists of a number of operator’s

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

s with VDU/LCD displays which depict the control area and is semi-automatic using Automatic Route Setting (ARS) – a computer-based route setting system driven from a pre-programmed timetable

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...

. ARS can also handle severely disrupted service patterns and assist the signaller in the event of train or infrastructure failures. IECCs were developed as an alternative to the traditional switch or button panel control, which in turn replaced mechanical

lever frame Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the signals, track locks and points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control. Usually located in the signal box, the ...

s. From the start, they controlled Solid State Interlockings (SSIs), a software version of the traditional relay

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...

, but existing relay interlockings may also be controlled from an IECC. The system can control as many miles of track as required, but typically around 50–100 miles. Recently, PC-based control systems, similar to the IECC have been developed and are sold by various

signalling In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

contractors, e.g.

Westinghouse Rail Systems Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd (formerly ''Westinghouse Signals Ltd'') was a British supplier of railway signalling and control equipment to the rail industry worldwide. Its head office was in Chippenham, Wiltshire, where it manufactured a varie ...

WESTCAD.

Early history

The concept of IECC was developed at the

Railway Technical Centre The Railway Technical Centre (RTC) in London Road, Derby, England, was the technical headquarters of the British Railways Board, and was built in the early 1960s. British Rail described it as the largest railway research complex in the world. Th ...

in Derby during the 1980s, and in particular the initial software for ARS and SSI. A contract for the development of an operational standard system was let in January 1987 to

CAP Group CAP Group was a British software house. Computer Analysts and Programmers Ltd (CAP) was founded in May 1962 and grew to be one of the foremost IT companies in the UK before merging with French company Sema-Metra in 1988 to form Sema Group. H ...

, including the supply of a complete system for Yoker (Glasgow) and the ARS for the Waterloo area. This was the first time a software house became involved in railway signalling after competing against the main incumbent suppliers of GEC-General Signal and Westinghouse Signals Ltd. The solution used off-the-shelf microcomputer technology (Motorola 68000 microprocessors and VME Bus) to host the sub-systems of IECC in high availability configurations linked via a duplicated Nine Tiles Superlink local area network. Subsequent contracts were let to CAP Group (became

Sema Group Sema Group plc was an Anglo-French IT services company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Schlumberger in 2001. History The Company was founded in 1988 by the merger of th ...

in 1988) for further operational IECC systems involving the supply of turnkey hardware and software. These included the first IECC to go live at Liverpool Street in Easter 1989 quickly followed by York. In September 2020 the original Liverpool Street IECC was replaced with a new IECC Scalable system.

Later developments

As a result of UK railway privatisation in the mid-1990s, British Rail Research was bought by AEA Technology Rail, who took over the supply of new IECCs, support for the existing installed base, and enhancements to the hardware and software.Signalling Control Centres Today and Tomorrow, Mitchell, I.H., IRSE Proceedings 2002-3
/ref> In 2006, the AEA rail business became DeltaRail (now called Resonate Group), who have develope
IECC Scalable
which replicates all the functionality of the original IECC on a modern hardware platform and software architecture. Following a successful six-month trial at Swindon B in 2012, IECC Scalable is now the standard for new installations, starting with Cambridge where it controls the Ely-Norwich line which has been resignalled on the "modular signalling" concept for secondary routes.

List of IECCs in service as of 1 January 2017

The following installations are not true IECCs of the BR/SEMA/DeltaRail design. They are VDU based signalling control systems with a similar "look and feel" but in most cases they do not incorporate Automatic Route Setting.
Some locations shown below are interim installations which will eventually move into larger signalling control centres, such as Leamington and Madeley, which in time will move to the West Midlands Signalling Centre.

References

External links

Resonate Group Ltd web siteHitachi Information Control Systems Europe web siteYouTube: Ashford resignalling TV News report
* SimSig offers free IECC simulations for private home use
The British Power Signalling Register
contains a full list of IECC and other signalling workstations (also interlockings and panels) on the UK main line Network, including those that are not listed above because they are no longer in service. {{Railwaysignalling Railway signalling in the United Kingdom British Rail research and development Railway signalling control