256 Axles Confuse Swiss Signalling

Trains in Switzerland must not have exactly 256 axles, or the signalling system gets confused. 3.7.4 Zugbildung Um das ungewollte Freimelden von Streckenabschnitten durch das Rückstellen der Achszähler auf Null und dadurch Zuggefährdungen zu vermeiden, darf die effektive Gesamtachsenzahl eines Zuges nicht 256 Achsen betragen. "To avoid falsely signalling a section of track as clear by resetting the axle counter to zero, and thus to avoid [collisions], the total number of axles in a train must not equal 256."

The meme shows a Reddit post claiming that Swiss trains cannot have exactly 256 axles because the signalling system becomes confused. Below it is a railway document explaining that axle counters reset at 256, creating a technically plausible but absurd railway rule; it is shared as a reaction to jokes about software limitations, integer overflow, or bizarre engineering edge cases.

• @gentoomemes / 15591 2025-01-16