While travelling in a train, you must have seen some yellow square sign boards with capital letters ‘W’, ‘W/L’ and round boards with ‘C/T’ on the side of the tracks. Do you know what they mean?
Let’s understand what these signs mean.
The yellow square signboard with letter ‘W’ written in black indicates that the driver has to blow the general whistle. If a loco pilot sees this board along the route, he then uses the horn.
If the engine driver he comes across the sign ‘W/L’, then he has to realise that he is approaching an unmanned level crossing. So he has to blow the horn for lengthy periods and a number of times to alert people. Generally, such sign boards are placed 250 metres before an unmanned level crossing. Many times the signs are written in Hindi and are written as ‘see/pha’. ‘See/pha’ means ‘siti bajao-phatak’.
Signboards with ‘W/B’ indicate that the train is approaching a bridge. The engine driver then has to blow the horn as the train crosses the bridge.
Similarly, if a train approaches a tunnel, one can find a round-shaped yellow board with ‘C/T’ written in black. This sign is found at the entrance of the tunnel.
So, hereafter whenever you find such signboards while travelling in a train, you can realise what is up ahead.
PNN