Automatic Ticket Gates

As most of you are probably aware, the majority of London Underground stations, and several National Rail stations are equipped with Automatic Ticket Gates, mostly supplied by CTS.

The gate system comprises various parts. First up, you've got the automatic gates. The more modern gates have one pair of "paddles", which can be set to either entry or exit mode, whereas the older gates seen at most Underground stations have two sets of paddles.

Supplementing the main, narrow, gates, you have a wider gate for people with heavy luggage/bicycles/wheelchairs and the like. This can either be manual (held shut by an electromagnet) or automatic, like the rest of the gateline.

In this particular setup, we have a pair of automatic gates (one set to Entry mode, the other to Exit), and a Manual Gate. On the "pillar" beside the wide gate are three keyswitches (Open, Emergency Open, and Cancel Alarm). The Open switch unlocks the manual gate, Emergency Open slowly opens the auto gates and sounds an alarm, and Cancel Alarm is self explanatory.

On the wall near the gateline is a locked box, containing an Emergency Open plunger, Open/Lock switch for the Manual Gate, and a reset switch.

In the Ticket Office, there is a "Station Control Unit" (PC with touchscreen monitor to enable remote programming of the gates, etc), and another Emergency Open plunger and Open/Lock switch for the Manual Gate.

This would normally be fine, except the gates currently aren't "talking" to the SCU, so any reprogramming/resetting has to be done via the control panel inside the gate pillar, and the lock on the manual gate is a bit "temperamental" and doesn't always lock.

It gets better though, as I emptied the ticket bin on one of the gates yesterday and found a piston within...Ho hum.

UPDATE: We've now discovered that the reason for the gates not communicating with the SCU is that the Master Unit was lost in a fire. Doh!