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Systems for controlling a railway train for the transport of goods comprising a plurality of locomotives

  • US 10,518,760 B2
  • Filed: 08/09/2016
  • Issued: 12/31/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2015
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. Control system for a railway train for the transport of goods, comprising a plurality of wagons, a master locomotive placed at the head of the train and one or more slave locomotives distributed in the train, the train being provided with a pneumatic brake pipe which extends throughout the train, the master locomotive being provided with a master control system for controlling the train, the at least one slave locomotive being provided with a slave control system subordinated to the master control system for controlling the train, said master and slave control systems being adapted to communicate with each other through a radio channel, the or each slave system being designed to control traction apparatus, control apparatus for controlling the pressure in the brake pipe and emergency brake application apparatus for the corresponding slave locomotive and for retransmitting to the master system signals indicating the status of said apparatuses of the slave locomotive, the master system being adapted to interpret traction commands and braking commands imparted by the driver of the master locomotive and to transmit corresponding commands to the slave system as traction set point values and pressure set point values in the brake pipe to be implemented locally, said master system being further adapted to interpret emergency braking commands imparted by the driver of the master locomotive or by on-board systems of the master locomotive and to transmit corresponding emergency brake application commands to the slave systems to be implemented locally;

  • the control system being characterized in that in case of a loss of radio communication between the master system and the slave system(s), the or each slave control system is designed to;

    analyse the variations of the pressure in the brake pipe and of the air flow supplied to said brake pipe;

    in the presence of a negative gradient of the pressure in the brake pipe, connect to the brake pipe a controller device adapted to actively control the pressure in said pipe, and operate said controller device so as to create one or more successive negative steps of the set point value of the pressure in the brake pipe;

    at the end of the application of the or each negative pressure set point value in the brake pipe, monitor the air flow supplied to the brake pipe and isolate said controller device from said pipe when a local supply of air to said pipe by said controller device is detected;

    after the actuation of the or each negative step of the braking pressure set point value, in the absence of a detection of local supply of air to the brake pipe by said controller device, isolate said controller device from the brake pipe on the expiry of a timeout started when the controller device is coupled to the brake pipe, andin the presence of a positive gradient of the pressure in the brake pipe, keep said controller device isolated from the brake pipe.

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