signal check

plural signal checks

1. rail transportAn instance where a train must stop at a red signal, or slow down before passing a signal displaying a yellow aspect.

   Of the failures to do so on the 23 other occasions, six only were attributed to the performance of the locomotives and the remainder to signal checks and permanent way cautions, particularly in the week following a parcels train derailment at Northallerton.

   1961 April, G. Freeman Allen, “The planning and execution of the new Leeds-Manchester service”, in Trains Illustrated, page 204