AUTOMATIC SWITCHING CONTROL SYSTEM FOR RAILWAY CLASSIFICATION YARDS

• US 3,865,042 A
• Filed: 04/04/1973
• Issued: 02/11/1975
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sasib SpA (Is Company SRL)
• Original Assignee: Charles W. Morse, John J. Depaola
• Inventors: DePaola, John J., Morse, Charles W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wood, Jr., M. Henson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
• Application Number:
  US05/348,376
• Time in Patent Office: 678 Days
• Field of Search: 246/182A,1R 104/26R,26B
• US Class Current: 104/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 17/00 Switching systems for classification yards

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling the positioning of switches in a railway classification yard so as to route successive cuts from a train, as they are uncoupled at the hump of the yard, to their respective destination tracks. A digital computer receives information respecting the location of the various cuts as they are traveling through the yard and operates the various switches in the yard to safely route each of the cuts to its destination track. Protection is provided to handle blocked and fouled tracks and also to detect stalled cars and prevent cornering. The computer is responsive to information received from a variety of sensing devices placed throughout the yard and means are further provided to detect failures of these sensing devices in order to enable the system to operate in spite of such failures. The apparatus is so arranged that it can be applied to a wide variety of classification yards with a minimum amount of modification. In particular, the yard characteristics are separately stored in a storage means. To modify the apparatus to control a classification yard with differing characteristics, it is only necessary to modify the yard characteristic data stored in the storage means and the apparatus can be operated in a virtually unchanged manner.

Claims

1. Apparatus for controlling the switches in a railway classification yard to route each cut of cars rolling down the crest to its proper destination including car sensing devices at the crest and at each switch, said apparatus comprising;

computer means responsive to said sensing devices and which has stored therein;

a. a sequential list of cars as they appear at the crest and an intended destination track for each of said cars, b. the characteristics of the yard including a table which identifies, for each destination track, the switches included in the route from the crest to said destination track and the proper position for each of said switches to route a cut from said crest to said destination track, c. said computer means further providing, 1. means for determining the number of cars in each cut, 2. means responsive, to each cut at said crest, to said table and said list to determine the position of the first switch in said classification yard, 3. means responsive to said last named means to correctly position said first switch to route said cut to its destination track unless the proper positioning of said switch would result in an unsafe condition, 4. means responsive, to the presence of a cut at any subsequent switch, to said table and said list to determine the position of the next succeeding switch in the yard for the cut to reach its required destination track, 5. means responsive to said last named meAns to correctly position said next succeeding switch unless the correct positioning of said next succeeding switch would result in an unsafe condition, 6. means to compare the position of each switch as each cut is adjacent thereto with the required position for said cut to reach its intended destination track, 7. means responsive to said last named means when indicating a lack of comparison and to said table to select a different destination track for said cut, and 8. means responsive to said last named means to modify said list for said cut by substituting said different destination track for said intended destination track.

2. means, responsive to said last named means when a lack of comparison has been determined, to select a different destination track, and,

3. means responsive to said last named means to correctly position said first switch to route said cut to its destination track unless the proper positioning of said switch would result in an unsafe condition,

4. The apparatus of claim 3 including further apparatus to provide cornering prevention, said apparatus comprising, means responsive to the multiple actuation of said sensing device at a switch by the multiple axles of a cut to compute the velocity of said cut at said switch, time and velocity estimating means, responsive to said last named means and further responsive to the grade and distance between said switch and the next switch in the route for said cut to compute the estimated velocity of said cut at said next switch and the expected time of travel for said cut from said switch to said next switch, storage means, responsive to said last named means to store said estimated velocity of said cut at said next switch, timing means, means responsive to said time and velocity estimating means to set said timer to said estimated time, monitoring means to indicate when said timing means times out said estimated time, means responsive to said monitoring means to set said bistable means to its one position when said monitoring means indicates said timing means has timed out.

5. means responsive to said last named meAns to correctly position said next succeeding switch unless the correct positioning of said next succeeding switch would result in an unsafe condition,

6. In the apparatus of claim 5 wherein said first means further includes, a plurality of registers, each of said registers associated with one of the switches in the yard and each said register contains the designation of the next approaching cut, storage means containing data with respect to each cut, said data including for each cut, its intended destination track, said data being correlated with the designation stored in each register, said identifying and locating means, including means to interrogate in sequence, the register associated with the immediately preceding switch in the route of said cut to identify and locate said immediately succeeding cut.

7. means responsive to said last named means when indicating a lack of comparison and to said table to select a different destination track for said cut, and

8. Apparatus for controlling the switches in a railway classification yard to route each cut of cars rolling down the crest to its proper destination including car sensing devices at the crest and at each switch, said apparatus comprising;

computer means responsive to said sensing devices and which has stoed therein;

a. a sequential list of cars as they appear at the crest and an intended destination track for each of said cars, b. the characteristics of the yard including a table which identifies, for each destination track, the switches included in the route from the crest to said destination track and the proper position for each of said switches to route a cut from said crest to said destination track, c. said computer means further providing

9. The apparatus of claim 8 in which said means to select a different destination track includes a second table identifying, for each switch and destination track said different destination track.

10. Apparatus for controlling the switches in a railway classification yard to route each cut of cars rolling down the crest to its proper destination including car sensing devices at the crest and at each sWitch, said apparatus comprising, computer means including a digital computer, a plurality of tables stored therein, said tables uniquely defining characteristics of said yard, a sequential list of cars as they appear at the crest and an intended destination track for each of said cars stored in said computer and a program distinct from said tables also stored in said computer, said computer means responsive to said car sensing devices said list, said tables and said program to control each of said switches to route each of said cars to its destination track.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 in which said program and said digital computer include means to determine a misroute of a cut, means responsive thereto to refer to one of said tables to determine another destination track for said cut and further means responsive to said means to determine for routing said cut to said another destination track.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 in which said program and said digital computer include means to prevent cornering.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 in which said program and said digital computer include means to detect failure of said sensing devices.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 in which said program and said digital computer include means to detect blocked tracks.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 in which said program and said digital computer include means to detect fouled tracks.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 in which said program and said digital computer include means to detect stalled cars.