Method for determining the occupancy status of a track section in particular following a restart of an axle counting system, as well as an evaluation device and counting point for this

A counting point with a counting point logic, comprising:

• a counter for counting currently passing axles of a traction vehicle,
• a transmitting device for transmitting counter values of said counter,
• a receiving device for receiving a storage command, and
• at least one storage device for storing a current counting value on receipt of said storage command following clearing of a track section,
• wherein, when storing the current counting value, the storage device additionally stores a certain value as status information, the status information providing information that a valid current counting value has been stored.

An evaluation device for determining an occupancy status of at least one track section, said evaluation device comprising:

• a receiving device for receiving counter values from at least two corresponding counting points of the at least one track section,
• an evaluation logic for evaluating the received counter values,
• a transmitting device for transmitting a storage command to the at least two corresponding counting points to store a current counter value for each counting point, and
• the evaluation logic being configured so that the occupancy status of the track section can be determined solely from the received counter values,
• wherein said at least two corresponding counting points comprise a counting-in axle counting point at a start of said track section and a counting-out axle counting point at an end of said track section, said evaluation device further including means for storing current counting values of said counting-in and counting out axle counting points following clearing of the track section and for subsequently determining the occupancy status from the stored values together with the counting values current at the subsequent time,
• wherein said transmitting device transmits said storage command to said counting-in and counting-out axle counting points on clearing of the track section, and at said subsequent time each counting point transmits its stored value together with the counting value currently ascertained to said evaluation device, and
• wherein each counting point, when storing the current counting value, additionally stores a certain value as status information that provides information that a valid current counting value has been stored and wherein the counting point transmits this status information together with the stored value and the current counting value to said evaluation device.