Patent ID: 7464904

Claim:
A method of providing a sleep mode and a wake-up mode for a plurality of railway track circuit units, said method comprising: adapting one of said track circuit units to communicate in a first direction to a first track circuit unit and in a different second direction to a different second track circuit unit; employing a plurality of wireless messages between a train and a plurality of wayside units operatively associated with at least some of said track circuit units; including with said wireless messages a first identifier of a corresponding one of said track circuit units and a second identifier of a direction of travel of said train; receiving one of said wireless messages at one of said wayside units corresponding to said one of said track circuit units based upon said first identifier and responsively entering the wake-up mode from the sleep mode of said one of said track circuit units; and responsively outputting based upon said second identifier from said one of said track circuit units a signal in the first direction to said first track circuit unit or in the different second direction to said different second track circuit unit.