New Sorting System For Trains

[straight_stewie]

If you're into trains or model railroading, you're going to love this. I was trying to find out if real railroads use automatic decouplers for their trains and I found this patent that describes a new classification (sorting) system for rail cars in large rail yards.

In this system, no switches, humps, or people to decouple the cars are needed.

What is a switch or hump?

Spoiler

Switch

Hump Yard

 

Rather, this system will use two transfer tables and automatic decouplers to both make classification (sorting) of rail cars faster, more efficient (not requiring extra engines or crew) and cheaper.

What is a transfer table?

Spoiler

 

Here's a link to the patent (U.S Patent #8302535, filed in 2010):  https://www.google.ch/patents/US8302535

[Mug]

Oh god, this is actually so sad

Why did someone invent this, WHY?!?!?!

 

[straight_stewie]

9 hours ago, Mug said:

Oh god, this is actually so sad

Why did someone invent this, WHY?!?!?!

What's sad about it?

 

[Monkey Dust]

Do train cars get shuffled around enough to justify what I'm assuming is a huge investment?

[straight_stewie]

1 minute ago, Monkey Dust said:

Do train cars get shuffled around enough to justify what I'm assuming is a huge investment?

Yes, they do. Infact, rail cars spend more time being sorted than they do being driven from place to place. With modern computer technology and hump yards, gravity yards, or kicking (as opposed to shunting), most yards can employ a one time sort. In other words, train cars are sorted once upon arrival into blocks, then the blocks are sorted as they are connected to build an outgoing train. However, this sorting can happen to any rail cars 10's of times on it's journey from one place to another. 

In other places where kicking or gravity sorting is not allowed or possible, cars must be shunted or switched. This means that an arriving train drops off the cars and picks up an outbound train. Then a switcher (a small locomotive) manually pushes each car to it's appropriate place. This is very time and fuel consuming. 

Kicking, Shunting (or Switching, depending on which side of the pond you reside), Gravity, and Hump yards

Spoiler

Kicking

Shunting/Switching

 

Gravity/Hump Yard