Push off (railroad)
Repel is a technical term used in railway operations . This is understood to mean that pushed rail vehicles continue to travel due to their inertia after a shunting locomotive or other traction vehicle has accelerated them and then stops again so that they can continue on their own. This procedure is used when maneuvering vehicles out of a track - e.g. B. from a pull-out track - to be distributed in the tracks branching off from it, without having to drive into these tracks every time.
In these tracks, the repelled vehicles z. B. braked and stopped in front of vehicles already standing there or at the end of the track or in front of a track end with drag shoes . In this way, vehicle groups can be broken down, rearranged and put together to form a train or put to use with relatively little effort.
Pushing off is very energy and time consuming because of the repeated acceleration and braking and can also damage the cargo. Distributing over a drainage mountain is more efficient and gentle, but structurally far more complex .
In Germany, the order to push off is given using the Ra 4 shunting signal.