RAILROAD YARD INFORMATION SYSTEM

• US 3,611,281 A
• Filed: 05/26/1969
• Issued: 10/05/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/1969
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Thomas V. Evanoff
• Original Assignee: Thomas V. Evanoff
• Inventors: Evanoff, Thomas V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Claffy, Kathleen H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Black, Jan S.
• Application Number:
  US04/827,701
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 246/122,124,2,131,134 340/23,24,146.3X 235/61.11
• US Class Current: 340/993
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 17/00 Switching systems for classification yards
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 25/025 Absolute localisation, e.g. providing geodetic coordinates

Abstract

A system for indicating the positions of a number of railroad cars situated within a yard which has a pair of inlets and outlets and a plurality of track segments between the inlets and outlets, connected to one another by switches, includes first sensors at the inlets and outlets which scan indicators fixed to passing cars to provide electrical signals identifying the car and the direction of its motion. A second type of sensor is disposed at two of the three track segments which adjoin each switch point to provide signals indicative of the direction of motion of passing cars. The outputs of both forms of sensors are provided by a scanning unit to a general purpose computer which has a core storage area assigned to each track segment. Each core area stores words identifying the cores presently in the track segment it represents. Car identification numbers are added or subtracted from the list of cars contained within the segments adjoining the inlets and outlets under control of the first sensors and car-identifying numbers are manipulated between the core areas under control of the second sensors. A variety of reporting readouts may be obtained from the computer.

Claims

1. A car location information system for a rail yard having a plurality of track segments interconnected by switches, comprising:

first sensor means disposed adjacent to the inlets and outlets to the yard operative to provide electrical signals identifying cars moving in and out of the yard and their direction of motion;

a plurality of second sensors disposed adjacent to the switch connections operative to provide signals identifying only the direction of motion of cars passing the sensors;

a storage device having a plurality of information storage sections equal in number to the track segments, one storage section being associated with each track segment and each storage section being capable of storing a number of caridentifying signals equal to the number of cars which may be retained on its associated track segment; and

means under control of signals from the first sensor means for adding car-identifying signals to and removing car-identifying signals from at least certain storage sections and under control of signals from said second plurality of sensors for transferring car-identifying signals between various sections of said storage.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said rail yard has a first number of inlet and outlet sections, said first sensor means comprises a plurality of sensors one of which is associated with each of said inlet and outlet sections, and the storage sections which car-identifying numbers are read into and removed from under control of the first sensor means are associated with track segments directly connected to said inlets and outlets.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said first sensor means cooperate with indicia formed on the cars to provide output signals indicative of thE identification of a car passing a particular point.

4. The system of claim 1, in which all of the switches are two-position switches and second sensors are disposed adjacent to two of the rails leading to each switch.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein certain of said track segments constitute inlets and outlets to the yard and the car-identifying signals which are added to and removed from at least certain of the storage sections under control of signals from the first sensor means are added to or removed from sections associated with these segments.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage device having a plurality of information storage sections constitutes the storage section of a general purpose computer and the means under control of signals from the first sensor means for adding car-identifying signals to and removing car-identifying signals from the certain storage sections and under control of signals from said second plurality of sensors for transferring car-identifying signals between various sections of said storage constitutes the control section of the same general purpose computer.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage device having a plurality of information storage sections constitutes a rotary magnetic drum with each storage section occupying a complete annular ring on the drum.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein means are provided for determining the storage section in which a particular car-identifying signal is stored and for determining all of the car-identifying signals contained within one storage section at any given time.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a car-identifying signal is added to one of the storage sections upon receipt of a signal from said first sensor means, indicating that a particular car is moving into the yard and car-identifying signals are removed from certain storage sections upon receipt of signal from said first sensor means, indicating a car is moving out of the yard.