Railway switches and signals – Cab signal or train control – Speed-control systems
Patent
1996-03-29
1998-06-02
Morano, S. Joseph
Railway switches and signals
Cab signal or train control
Speed-control systems
246 2R, 246 6, 246182AB, 246187A, 104 261, 303130, 36442601, 36442605, B61L 300
Patent
active
057588481
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process and associated devices for automating the switching operation of track-bound freight cars.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The particular advantage of rail freight traffic is that individual freight cars can be assembled into larger trains, which can then be transported over longer distances at relatively low expense. However, in order to transport smaller quantities of freight in individual freight cars or groups of freight cars, it necessary to repeatedly assemble and split up the trains and sort the freight cars. Freight cars arriving from siding tracks and terminals must first be sorted and bundled according to their final directions in nearby switching yards, before then being transported in trains over longer distances to distant switching yards. There the freight cars are again sorted and, finally, transported to their destinations.
The switching systems needed to do this consist essentially of reception tracks, a shunting hump or hump yard followed by a switching zone, which in turn is followed by sorting tracks, where freight cars with the same direction of travel are collected and assembled into new trains. In the actual switching procedure, decoupled sections consisting of individual freight cars or groups of freight cars are pushed by a switching locomotive over the shunting hump. On the downhill side of the hump, the sections accelerate due to gravity and then arrive via the switching zone at the sorting tracks corresponding to their destinations.
In order to avoid damaging collisions during switching, it is necessary to slow the freight cars travelling onto the sorting track in a timely manner as they approach freight cars already standing there. In conventional switching yards, this is done by the dangerous and labor-intensive method of applying slipper brakes. In modern switching yards, automatic car retarders are used in combination with forwarding devices.
Particularly in large switching yards with extensive switching zones, there is also the problem that freight cars travel at different speeds, due to their different travelling characteristics, so that sections which travel faster catch up with slower freight cars in the switching zone. This leads to damaging collisions and also to "wrong runners," because the switches between the sections cannot be set in time and sections therefore run onto the wrong sorting track.
Various switching systems and processes are known which use staggered automatic car retarders in order to prevent the freight cars in the shunting zone from coming impermissibly close to one another, to reduce the speed at which the cars run onto the sorting tracks, and to close up the cars on the sorting tracks in a ready-to-couple manner with the help of forwarding devices.
A major disadvantage of previous switching systems, especially when slipper brakes are used and even when automatic car retarders and forwarding devices are employed, is that damaging collisions occur because the freight cars are not slowed down sufficiently. This frequently results in damage to cars or freight.
In addition, previous switching technology is disadvantageous in respect to the relatively high cost of automatic car retarders and forwarding devices, so that the use of this technology at the smaller switching yards and freight depots important for fine-scale distribution is uneconomical, and the labor-intensive slipper-brake method continues to be used at such facilities.
In the previous switching methods, the freight cars must first be identified and a cut list must be compiled to prepare for switching. Then the freight cars must be manually decoupled at the separation points called for by the cut list, and the brakes must be vented by actuating a valve. To ready the cars for departure after switching, the brake hoses must be connected, the travel safety checked and the brake power set; in addition, a brake test must be carried out. These activities are not only labor-intensive, but also delay the switc
REFERENCES:
patent: 3654456 (1972-04-01), Sarbach
patent: 3964702 (1976-06-01), Lardennois et al.
patent: 4498711 (1985-02-01), Langley et al.
patent: 4610206 (1986-09-01), Kubala et al.
patent: 4711418 (1987-12-01), Aver, Jr. et al.
patent: 4766815 (1988-08-01), Chongben et al.
patent: 5511749 (1996-04-01), Horst et al.
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