Marshalling yard
Marshalling yards are the Zugbildungs railway stations of the single car traffic (transport individual freight cars in mixed coatings instead of trains ) in the freight of the railway . In Austria some of them are also called marshalling yard (Vbf); a term that was partly official in (mainly Northern) Germany until 1960 and is still often used in everyday language .
The individual or groups of freight wagons transported in freight transport - hereinafter referred to as wagons - must be put together to form trains and the trains dismantled again. Therefore, an abandoned wagon is handled several times by shunting services , namely in the departure and destination stations as well as during the route in shunting yards and sometimes also in smaller railway junctions . The reason for this is that the cargo volume is only large enough in very few relations for treatment-free and thus block train-like traffic. By grouping wagons with loads that are to be carried in the same direction, the locomotives are better utilized, which leads to less need for locomotives and greater line efficiency.
Differentiation from other train stations
In contrast to passenger and freight yards, marshalling yards do not serve as access points to the railway network , i.e. not for traffic, but rather operational tasks within the network as depots for freight traffic . At the same time, however, an entire station can structurally be composed of several adjacent station parts with different tasks, so that in these cases the marshalling yard is part of a combined station system. Shunting yards are the largest stations in terms of the size of their track systems.
Furthermore, even within individual countries, it is not always possible to clearly define which stations with train-forming tasks in single-wagon traffic can be designated as marshalling yards, as there are sometimes different criteria for this between the railway technical, railway operational and / or administrative point of view :
- There are Zugbildungsbahnhöfe, while the bottom have a railway marshalling yard technically fully equipped form described in detail, however, have only local tasks. Examples of this are the Bremerhaven - Speckenbüttel train station or, in some countries, large non-public works and port stations .
- There are train stations that do not have the railway system of a marshalling yard and only have a few freight train tracks. Although there are much larger freight train formation stations, sometimes even in the same country, they are officially classified in the highest category “marshalling yard”. For example, the structurally small Rotkreuz junction station in Switzerland is a marshalling yard, but not the larger Genève- La Praille station, which is equipped with shunting technology .
- There are freight yards that use the local language equivalent of the addition "marshalling yard" in their official name, but without exercising this function and / or having the corresponding technical expansion. Examples of this are in Germany the Emden Rbf station, which only serves local and port traffic, or in Russia the Sovetskaya Gawan- Sortirowotschnaja station (Russian: marshalling yard) , although the railway marshalling yard belonging to this Pacific port is actually the larger Toki station further inland.
- In some countries there is single wagon traffic, but the associated shunting tasks are only carried out in small train formation stations with only a few tracks. Examples of this are Turkey and Great Britain , since all stations there that were marshalling yards in the railway engineering sense were shut down.
Locations
Geographical distribution worldwide
The greatest number and density of marshalling yards, based on the length of the railways, is in Central Europe , the Benelux countries and France ; followed by the rest of Europe , the former Soviet Union, as well as China and the USA (in these two countries mainly in the eastern half), and earlier also in Japan ; so mostly in predominantly industrial areas. A relatively large number of marshalling yards, but less densely distributed, were built in Canada , India and the Republic of South Africa ; in Australia only a few. Even in the countries of the so-called “Third World”, especially in Latin America , there are only a few marshalling yards, and often none at all.
In terms of gauge , most marshalling yards are standard gauge (most of Europe, China, North America , etc.), followed by the wide gauge (former Soviet Union, Finland , India). Narrow-gauge marshalling yards are rarer : these are mainly Cape- gauge (South Africa etc. and earlier also Japan) and occasionally also meter-gauge (e.g. one train station in Thailand [Bang Sue near Bangkok ] and one in Brazil [Terminal de Tubarão that is equipped with rail brakes at Vitória ]). On the other hand, there are not only normal, but also broad-gauge railway networks that have never had marshalling yards (the latter e.g. on the entire island of Ireland and in the broad-gauge network of south-east Brazil).
A geographical overview of marshalling yards, initially in Europe, can be found in the list of marshalling yards .
Location factors
Marshalling yards were created primarily at the following locations:
- in or near places with a large volume of goods of their own, mostly at the same time important railway junctions:
- Mining and / or industrial areas , especially those with heavy industry ;
- metropolitan areas ,
- large port locations ;
- in other railway nodes and traffic centers:
- Small or medium-sized towns such as Bebra, Offenburg, Simeria (Romania) or Miramas (between Avignon and Marseille), which are economically and in the cityscape dominated by the railway ,
- smaller large or industrial cities;
- and in smaller numbers in border and lane changing stations ,
- in the USA also at operating centers (“ hubs ”) of the networks of the railway companies that have always been privately operated there, which are often located in remote towns .
Most of the time, two or more of these location factors meet or have come together: for example, the combination of industrial area, metropolitan area and main railway junction is often in Cologne (Gremberg), Zurich ( Limmattal ), Liège (Kinkempois), Lyon (Sibelin), Milan, Bucharest or others Char'kiv.
On the other hand, not every place to which at least one of the mentioned location factors applies has a marshalling yard. Even in Europe there are big cities like Münster (Westf.) , Pforzheim, Jena, Bern, Eindhoven, Cluj and even Florence or Seville as well as more important railway junctions like Altenbeken, Treuchtlingen, Bruck an der Mur (Austria), Culmont-Chalindrey (France) , Voghera (Italy) or Făurei (Romania), which never owned marshalling yards.
Railway complexes with several marshalling yards
In the areas of some large cities, two or occasionally three, as well as in the largest industrial areas (for example: Ruhr area , Hainaut / Hainaut, Saar-Lor-Lux , Upper Silesia , Donets Basin ) and some of the largest urban agglomerations (for example Berlin , Hamburg , Cologne , Paris , Lyon , Moscow ) created even more marshalling yards. Most of the marshalling yards within a railway complex worldwide were built in the Ruhr area. In the largest cities in the United States and Canada , each of the major private competing railroad companies has built its own marshalling yard, supplemented by a few marshalling yards owned by local handover railroad companies in Chicago , the world's largest rail hub, and St. Louis . In some other countries, too, the existence of several marshalling yards in one place is partly due to their construction by various possibly later nationalized private railways. More frequent reasons for this, however, were capacity expansion and the division of express and slower freight transport between different marshalling yards.
Location of the marshalling yards within the individual railway complexes
Within the conurbations or junction areas, the marshalling yards are either directly next to the (main) passenger station or parallel along one of the routes leaving the passenger station ("radial") or on a bypass or ring line serving only freight traffic ("tangential") . In relation to the continuous tracks of the route (s) on which the marshalling yard is located, it can either be completely on one side of it or, in the case of at least two-lane routes, in between; in the case of two-sided marshalling yards, there is also a shunting system on both sides of the continuous route. In larger railway complexes, there is usually a complete operational separation of the track systems according to passenger and freight traffic: The freight train lines leading to the marshalling yard branch off either directly in front of the station head of the marshalling yard itself or outside it on the edge of the complex from the continuous main lines , but can nonetheless directly run next to the passenger tracks. In modern high-performance railway complexes, the corresponding branch points and the junctions between the tracks and the marshalling yards are usually laid out without a plan. In the case of smaller systems, on the other hand, the marshalling yards are usually connected to the shared passenger and freight tracks.
In Europe in particular, there are also operating marshalling yards in very large industrial plants (mainly ironworks and chemical plants ) and very large ports , which are mostly operated by their connecting railway companies themselves and not by the public or private railways for general transport.
Military role
During the First World War were in France by the French army and the armies of Britain and the United States some marshalling yards for their military transports as part of the recapture of the German Empire created occupied northern part of the country.
In other countries, too, military reasons were decisive for the selection of the locations of some marshalling yards, or existing marshalling yards were or are military objects at the same time. That is why the locations and technical details of the marshalling yards in many especially communist countries were subject to state secrecy, cartographic censorship and a ban on photography for decades and in some cases still today . However, there are no marshalling yards in the sidings of the actual military bases .
With the end of the age of the great "railroad wars" such as B. the two world wars as well as the closure of many or in some countries all of the marshalling yards within the framework of the structural change in rail freight traffic explained below, however, their strategic importance for many armies has become less or completely eliminated.
Construction, shunting technology and operation
Overall arrangement
Most marshalling yards are structurally composed of the following separate track fields (or track groups, track harps):
- Approach group; behind (length development) or next to it (width development) the
- Directional group or directional harp (in Austria: series station), the largest group of tracks in the station with an average of around 20 to 40 tracks, in which the wagons are usually shunted to the directional tracks assigned to the respective target stations with the help of a drainage mountain after the pulled-in train has been dismantled , and from which the trains either drive out directly or, if available, in the subsequent, behind or next to the direction group
- Departure group leave the station. In a few marshalling yards, on the other hand, the entry group is also the exit group.
Many marshalling yards have or still had a subordinate group or station group, usually located in the immediate vicinity of the direction group and mostly (but never in Italy) equipped with a small drainage mountain, for the final assembly of trains consisting of wagons for several destination stations. If this is not available, on the other hand, the end of the directional group facing away from the main drainage mountain is used for rearrangement, possibly with a small drainage mountain.
A “re-sorting” is a special solution in which, if a one-step directional sorting is not sufficient, a second directional sorting is used for the fine sorting.
If the track groups are not arranged one behind the other, but next to one another, it is necessary to move the wagons from one track group to the next, pulling the train into a usually butt-ended pull-out track ("sawing run").
From an operational point of view, however, each marshalling yard is divided into two parts, with the separation point being at the end of the turnout area of the direction group (distribution zone) that adjoins the entry group: namely into a dismantling side (for dismantling the drawn-in trains, consisting of the entry group, possibly the discharge mountain and the Distribution zone) and a train formation side (to compose the newly formed trains, consisting of the direction group without distribution zone and, if necessary, subordinate and departure group).
profile
In the marshalling yards, the wagons are either moved with locomotives without the application of gravity in the track field or by letting them run off using their potential energy .
In freight yards with shunting operations without the use of gravity, the wagons are either pushed out of pull-out tracks (stump track at one or both ends of the station) or moved with a locomotive. In Europe, the former Soviet Union and China, the repositioning process is almost only used in smaller facilities (in Italy also in a few larger ones), while in many other countries (especially in South America ) it is also used in larger marshalling yards. It is cumbersome, labor-intensive, inefficient and therefore expensive and unsuitable for systems with high traffic volumes. To increase performance while reducing costs and making work easier, gravity has been used for maneuvering since the 19th century . However, the relocation process hardly requires any structural requirements.
The marshalling yards in the real sense, in which gravity is used for shunting, are several kilometers long and can usually handle several thousand cars per day. They are divided into two types according to the profile : most are flat stations , plus a few gradient stations (or gradient stations (Austria)).
Flat stations
In the flat station, the wagons are pushed out of the approach group or the pull-out track by a shunting locomotive over a rounded track laid out on an artificial hill (technical term: "pulled off") and shunted into the direction group. This track, which is inclined on two sides, is called a drainage mountain , drainage back or donkey back (in Austria , a roll mountain ). It is about 1 to 5 meters high, depending on the local conditions. In Central Europe, France, Romania , the former Soviet Union and China, the freight yards of numerous smaller railway junctions were also equipped with drainage mountains. In high-performance systems, the drainage mountain often has two mountain tracks instead of one, but only rarely in the USA. In Germany, in some marshalling yards, the entire turnout head is instead rounded off at the corresponding end of the approach group in the form of a multi-track drainage mountain (access ramp) .
The wagon train to be dismantled is "lengthened" at the points to be separated after entering. This means that by venting the main air line and the braking devices as well as turning the screw couplings long, the train will stretch. In addition, the brake clutches are disconnected at these points to be disconnected later and placed in the holders provided for this purpose. So that the train of cars to be pulled can be braked, the compressed air brake remains connected in front of the pull-off locomotive if there is a locally defined number of cars (»air tip«). Then the wagon train is pushed onto the drainage mountain by the push-pull locomotive . The long couplings are unhooked in front of the summit of the discharge mountain in order to let them run off individually or in small groups at the same destination station. With the help of their gravity, they then roll down from the discharge hill through the following points in the distribution zone into the tracks of the direction group ( directional tracks ) corresponding to the destination stations . If the air tip reaches the discharge mountain, it is dissolved with a brief interruption of the pressure-pushing process. In networks in which automatic central buffer couplings are used, there is no longer any need to stretch.
Apart from the drainage hill with the distribution zone, the remaining track systems of the flat stations are largely laid out horizontally, whereby the drive-in group in marshalling yards with track groups arranged one behind the other is usually higher than the rest of the station (but rarely in the USA) and the directional group sometimes has a slight gradient .
Gradient stations
Sloping stations, also sloping stations or sloping stations, differ from flat stations in that not only the distribution zone following the top of the discharge hill is on the gradient , but almost the entire station. This type of construction has a very high efficiency when there are high personnel requirements. Shunting locomotives are only used, if at all, to pull a train to be dismantled onto a pull-out track in front of the drainage system located on the continuous slope. Until the beginning of draining, the trains to be separated is also by rail brakes or brake retractable bounce bucks (formerly chocks ) retained as then in the direction group. Otherwise, the layout and operation of the gradient stations correspond to those of the flat stations. Most of the gradient stations were built in Germany (especially Saxony), then several in Great Britain, and a few more in a few other countries. They were laid out in particular when the topographical conditions at the chosen location were appropriate , but when they were built, they were also built instead of flat stations for cost reasons, because in the past staff was cheap and technology was expensive. Since these cost relationships were later reversed, this type of construction is now obsolete. Therefore, no new gradient stations have been built for decades.
The world's largest gradient station still in operation is Nürnberg Rbf . This station is the only German sloping station to be equipped with modern shunting technology. The modernized shunting facility went into operation in 1988. Since then there has also been a drainage mountain in Nürnberg Rbf. The dismantling units are pushed to the drainage mountain by remote-controlled locomotives from the 290 series . In the directional tracks, around 65,000 piston track brakes (so-called retarders) specially developed for Nürnberg Rbf ensure that the wagons are continuously braked in the directional tracks on the slope. The TKG brakes are an addition to better speed regulation; they are folded into or out of the braking process in 12 or 24 retarder groups as required. H. in this way fine control of poor runners can be implemented. Another special development for Nürnberg Rbf are the movable and retractable brake bumpers in the entry tracks to secure the train before it is allowed to run down, as well as the retractable buffer blocks at the end of the directional tracks.
Shunting equipment (RTE)
In Germany, the terms of shunting technology were standardized from the foundation of Deutsche Bahn AG and defined in the regulations of the railways and the EBA supervisory authority according to the following list. The standardization became necessary because the terms used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn and the Bundesbahn were not standardized. From 1998 the EBA had new regulations drawn up by the Bahn AG. The shunting technology specialists of the former BZA-Minden and the ZM-Halle worked together with the EBA on the following list, which breaks down the terms according to function and operating principles. These terms are intended to ensure a uniform technical language.
A distinction is made between the facilities of the inner and outer periphery of the drainage systems. The internal facilities are:
function
- Hill brakes
- Valley brakes
- Directional track brakes
- Slope compensation brake
- Car holding brakes
- retractable and erect buffer stops
- Automated wagon conveyor systems (as a cable run-off system or pushing device) can convey, accelerate or brake individual wagons and groups of wagons
Working principles
- Hydraulic rail brakes
- Pneumatic rail brakes
- Electrodynamic rail brakes
- Braking by putting on drag shoes with mechanical ejection
- Braking by placing the brake shoe
- Conveying, accelerating or braking with rollers of a cable conveyor system that act on flanges or wheel running surfaces
Types
- Bar track brakes ( BGB ), two-sided or one-sided hydraulic BGB used on uphill, downhill and directional tracks
- Bar track brakes (directional track brakes RGB ), built into the directional tracks
- Three-force brakes ( DKB ) (as directional track brakes ) were mostly pneumatically operated in the past
- Electrodynamic track brake ( EDG ), also EL-Dyn brakes can be used in all track areas, historically oldest track brake in Germany was used around 1925 with an eddy current principle
- Thyssen-Krupp sloping track brakes ( TKG ), hydraulic rams, 4 to 16 foldable braking elements
- Screw brakes ( SB ) (as directional track brakes), hydraulic operating principle
- Rubber track brakes ( GB ), lowerable and non-lowerable, installed as slope compensation brakes in the directional tracks or at the end of the slope, then stumbling blocks in action
- Rocker arm restraint shoe, if necessary a mechanical restraint shoe placed on the rail head from the side
- Conveyor systems, one-sided or two-sided conveyor wagons, conveyor lines up to 750 meters long.
- Holding brakes, hydraulic, safe function controversial, risk of slipping due to continuous buffering of accumulating trolleys
- Brake bumpers, lowerable used in sloping stations
External facilities are all facilities that control the processes, i.e. the computing technology
- reads the wagon sequence,
- controls the process,
- accordingly sets the course,
- Detects good and bad runs and regulates them kinematically using maneuvering technology.
Shunting technology
The maneuvering technology is subject to the highest dynamic and static requirements. The types of construction must absorb defined shocks and impacts without physical damage. The construction must be extremely robust, "railway-proof". The electrical and electronic components must retain their functional properties in all weathers and loads, i. H. also have emergency running properties. This functional test was carried out in long-term trials in the shunting systems of Deutsche Bahn and its predecessors, the Deutsche Reichsbahn and the Deutsche Bundesbahn.
The dynamic shear forces that arise have to be diverted into the foundations and the superstructure, especially with beam rail brakes. In order to drive on the shunting tracks without a profile, the drivetrain drivers must check whether they can be used. There is a car and a locomotive profile. When the brakes are applied, locomotives would run into the shunting equipment and damage it. That's why i. d. Usually a locomotive driving position into which the shunting equipment can be lowered. In this position, the profile freedom according to the EBO is granted. This enables locomotives to push in, pulling off wrong-way runners and pulling out or towing the trains towards and over the mountain. Because of the high burden on technology, the latter should be an exception. There are also rail brakes that do not allow traction vehicles to be driven on because they cannot be lowered.
Type approval of marshalling facilities
Since 1999, the various shunting systems with type approvals in Germany have been tested for their safety and operational properties in two-year tests and five-year extensions of the type approval by the Federal Railway Authority (EBA) and approved with notifications. Approval was also used for the term approval. DB AG participated with its own approved experts. The Federal Railway Authority as the supervisory authority approved the technology for five years after successful testing by the manufacturers. Within and after the five years, the technology was again examined for weaknesses. If there were weak points, improvements were made subject to conditions and the type approval was extended again. These test measures, which also take into account the needs of the maintenance staff and the trouble-free shunting operation, contributed to the fact that the manufacturers developed corresponding innovations and thus produced the most modern shunting equipment on a world scale. The availability of the technology was over 99%. Anyone who manufactures shunting equipment and wants to bring it into circulation by DB AG must have approval from specialist bodies. Up to 2015 almost all future-oriented shunting technology, regardless of commercial influences, was type-approved by the EBA. Foreign railways, such as those in Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria, the Netherlands, Russia, the USA or China, are also based on the approvals of the German Federal Railway Authority . This was confirmed by the participating nations at the international shunting technology symposium held in Munich every two years. Independent of the EBA approvals, the German manufacturers of marshalling facilities are EU-certified companies that produce according to international quality and safety standards and are allowed to bring this technology into rail traffic. Since 2014, DB AG has again been required to allow shunting equipment on its own.
The highest efficiency in the development of shunting technology in the last 20 years was achieved on a newly built shunting yard in Russia. At the Lužskaja-Sortirovočnaja station, which was built between 2013 and 2017, with 16 directional tracks, there were almost no adjustments to the existing facilities. It was created using the latest technology.
Details on process operation
The speed of the departing wagons is initially determined by the pulling-out locomotive. The simplest type of control is achieved with special trigger signals that tell the driver of the trigger locomotive whether to trigger quickly or slowly (what exactly means "fast" or "slow" varies from place to place). If the push-off speed of the entire department going over the mountain remains the same, the cycle time of the subsequent switch and braking systems determines how fast the push-off can be performed (0.8 to 1.4 m / s with a computer-controlled path). The current state of the art is pushing the trigger with a locomotive that is continuously radio-controlled directly by the maneuvering computer, which constantly changes its speed during the triggering process depending on the path of the car in front. Peak push-off speeds of 3.3 m / s ( Munich North ) and average push-off speeds of 1.6 m / s can be achieved here.
At the foot of the drainage mountain, the distance and the speed of the moving wagons are further regulated by braking , so that, depending on the number of wagons running together and depending on their weight, running characteristics, wind conditions and the number of wagons already in the direction track, they are as precisely as possible to the last wagon standing on the track can pass. This speed regulation was done by hand in older marshalling yards, usually in Europe by drag shoe layers and in the USA with wagon brakes. Brake sticks were sometimes used.
Since the 1920s, this has been gradually replaced by a new process in which the wagons leaving the distribution zone are braked with mechanical track brakes for around 6 to 12 directional tracks ( mechanized waste mountain) . Most of the track brakes are designed as bar brakes (braking by bars pressed against the wheels) , others also, for example, as rubber track brakes. Like the following points in the distribution zone, they are operated from the interlocking system.
The track brakes and points in the interlocking system were initially controlled manually with mechanical , electromechanical or push-button interlocking technology, as well as hydraulically for the track brakes , while computer technology is used in modern automatic systems ( electronic interlocking ). (See also article signal box )
The track brakes in the distribution zone immediately following the runoff hill are called valley brakes . The individual directional tracks have in automatic sequence systems for the fine regulation of the sequence speed (target braking) in connection with holding the wagons on the downhill or downhill part of the direction group ( gradient compensation braking) other track brakes of different types: in addition to hydraulic, pneumatic and Dowty directional track brakes there are also rubber or Screw brakes. In addition, the wagons in older, also mechanized shunting yards in the direction track could not be put together ready for coupling simply by letting them run down and braking, which is why they still had to be pushed together ("pushed in") by a shunting locomotive. For this purpose, wagon conveyor systems were later installed in the directional tracks of automatic marshalling yards , which come in two different versions: As continuously working, short clearing systems (space conveyors) to keep the front part of the station free from poorly moving wagons, and as elongated return conveyor systems that work at intervals around the wagon pillars to compress trains with coupling tires. Since the computer control of the entire push-off and run-off process means that much less has to be cleared than in the past, modern train stations only have a combined clearing and pushing conveyor system, which is mainly used for pushing down, but also clears bad runs from the front track zone if necessary .
In Europe, the directional group usually has 8 tracks in a symmetrical arrangement of points, often 32 directional tracks with four valley brakes, after each valley brake, so that all wagons pass through the distribution zone as quickly as possible . Deviating from this, a valley brake often follows, for example in China 6 and in Russia 6 or 7, and in the USA 6 to 10 directional tracks (there also bundles of 8 tracks usually have asymmetrically arranged points). From around 48 directional tracks, in shunting systems with Russian or derived shunting technology, even with fewer directional tracks, there are usually two, rarely even three, relays of track brakes as ramp brakes and valley brakes in the distribution zone following the discharge hill .
While in Europe, Russia, China and most other countries the length of the entry, direction and exit tracks is about the same, the entry and exit tracks in the USA and Canada are on average two to three times as long as the direction tracks because there considerably longer trains are driven than in other countries. However, since it is no longer possible to equip such long directional tracks to meet the requirements, long long-distance freight trains for a destination station are formed in two or three directional tracks and the train parts are then combined in the exit group.
Number of maneuvering systems
Shunting yards can be one-sided or two-sided .
Most marshalling yards are one-sided. In one-sided stations, the trains in both directions running through the station are dismantled in a common shunting system and formed anew. In some cases, trains that enter the station against the working direction of the discharge mountain hinder the operation. To avoid this, sometimes (especially in Russia and China) a loop was created at the end of the drive-in group facing away from the mountain . The Basel Bad marshalling yard , located on the German-Swiss border, originally had 3 loops, of which today only the northern one is used for turning trains of combined transport .
In bilateral marshalling yards, there is a separate shunting system for each direction. Wagons that have to leave the two-sided station at the same end from which they entered must be transferred to the other shunting system within the station after the first run in order to let them run into the directional track applicable to the destination station (corner traffic) . This is a decisive disadvantage of bilateral marshalling yards compared to the advantage of high performance because of the more costly and time-consuming additional shunting work. The two-sided design was chosen in particular if, for example, in mining areas or seaports, only a small wagon exchange was required between the two directions of travel and / or if the required performance in a one-sided station could no longer be managed. Two-sided marshalling yards were created particularly in Great Britain , Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, India, China and the USA; in other countries, however, only rarely. Older marshalling yards were more often laid out on two sides than newer ones, because later, thanks to more modern shunting technology, one-sided marshalling yards with higher performance could be built.
Notwithstanding this, a few marshalling yards with more than two shunting systems (especially in Germany) and head-shaped (especially in Italy) were built as special designs .
General cargo transportation
In addition to the transport of entire loads from the departure to the destination station in one wagon, wagonload traffic up to its relocation to the road also included the transport of general cargo , i.e. several shipments for different customers in one wagon. The general cargo at the point of departure was mixed into the wagon. In order to be able to deliver this to the right recipients, it had to be reloaded en route into other wagons, which then finally contained all the shipments intended for the respective local general cargo station. For this purpose, some of the marshalling yards were equipped with general cargo reloading halls (sometimes with an upstream separate drainage hill).
history
Early days
As early as 1846, gravity was used for the first time for maneuvering at the Leipzig train station in Dresden , but still with the main track lying on a slope instead of a drainage mountain of today's construction. First, the cars or groups of cars must be disconnected by hand. This was one of the most dangerous jobs in railroad operations. After shunting operations were still carried out in some of the shunting tracks connected to the freight yards in the early days of the railway , it became apparent in the 1860s that these small and already converted shunting systems were no longer sufficient for the increased volume of traffic and that, for this reason, separate "shunting yards" were required has been. These early marshalling yards were even more modest than today's. They were not yet maneuvered with run-off mountains, but in some cases with inclined pull-out tracks (at that time the common name: "Rangirkopf" ) or sometimes with horses . In these stations there were occasionally turntables or, more rarely, transfer platforms in the track field as shunting aids .
Technical progress
The first simple drainage mountain was built in 1858 in the Leipzig transfer station, which has now disappeared . The first marshalling yard with entry, direction and exit groups laid out one behind the other was the Terre Noire slope station near Saint-Étienne (Loire) in France (1863). This was followed in 1869 by Shildon Railway Station in north-east England . In 1876, the first drainage mountain with a counter slope was built in the Speldorf train station (Mülheim an der Ruhr) . The mechanical interlocking technology of that time usually required several interlockings in the distribution zone for larger drainage systems .
The arrangement of the track systems of the marshalling yards with separate groups, which is common today, became established in the 1890s . In 1891, the first high-performance marshalling yard was laid out as a two-sided system in this construction method in (Oberhausen-) Osterfeld Süd . In a first major wave of new construction from the end of the 19th century, numerous additional marshalling yards were built in Central Europe and, from the first decades of the 20th century, in the rest of Europe, the USA, Russia and India, and new marshalling yards were built and old systems were expanded . These were not yet mechanized, but the need for precise braking of the wagons had already been recognized and the use of drag shoes was made easier by installing drag shoe throwing devices at the foot of the discharge mountain (in Germany: Büssing type ) as a forerunner of the later rail brakes.
mechanization
In the twenties of the 20th century, the first marshalling yards were mechanized with girder brakes in order to further increase performance and reduce the dangerous use of drag shoes : in 1923 the Gibson station near Chicago in the USA with a complicated drainage system equipped with a large number of track brakes, then in 1924 in Cologne-Nippes and on the occasion of the railway technology exhibition there in Seddin ( Berlin intersection ) more modern test facilities. The first mechanized track brake system that fully met the practical requirements (four hydraulic brakes, type Frölich ) was then put into operation in 1925 in the Hvw drainage system of the Hamm Rbf station, which has been disused for many decades and was Europe's largest marshalling yard for many decades; more followed in the next few decades. The then new electromechanical interlocking technology now made it possible to operate the drainage system from just one interlocking. Simultaneously, the first flow signal boxes were simple plants to previous expiration storage (the first or all points of the distribution zone during the sequence process storage of the order of conversion) as standard.
During the Second World War , the marshalling yards in Germany and some other countries were destroyed by air raids . They therefore had to be rebuilt afterwards, although they were only sometimes modernized at the same time because of a lack of money or, in Germany, because of the requirements of the occupying powers.
automation
The first semi-automatic mound with computer control of the track brakes and points was opened in 1955 at Kirk train station near Gary in the Chicago metropolitan area , whereupon numerous other marshalling yards were automated from the 1960s onwards and, as technology progressed ( full automation with target braking), they no longer required stumbling blocks. In addition, driverless operation was introduced for the push- pull locomotives with operation from the exit signal box by radio remote control , which also made push-off signals unnecessary.
With the increase in performance of certain marshalling yards achieved through mechanization and automation, a thorough rationalization could be achieved at the same time by closing down other marshalling yards ; The same purpose was served by the conversion of some bilateral stations into one-sided ones and, in a second wave of new construction, from around the middle of the 20th century, the construction of large marshalling yards at locations that had previously only been obsolete and because of the surrounding buildings no longer expandable, which then have been partially or completely shut down. At the same time, many new marshalling yards were built in countries and areas where industrialization began later . In China in particular, numerous new marshalling yards were built, including what is now Asia's largest two-sided marshalling yard in Zhengzhou Bei (North) with 34 and 36 directional tracks. As far as the topographical conditions allowed, these new buildings were often built far outside the closed urban area because of the larger available area and the lower land prices. This new building activity reached its peak at the beginning of the eighties, only in South America there were only very few marshalling yards.
The 1903 Nuremberg marshalling yard was rebuilt during ongoing operations from 1983 and went into automated operation on April 21, 1987.
The largest marshalling yards in the world
Two-sided marshalling yards
The largest marshalling yard in the world is the two-sided Bailey Yard station near North Platte (64 and 50 directional tracks), located almost in the heart of the USA in the state of Nebraska on the transcontinental railroad from San Francisco to Chicago. The largest marshalling yard in Europe is the two-sided Maschen Rbf station south of Hamburg (built with 64 and 48 directional tracks, today 48 and 40 directional tracks).
In the USA there were several almost equally large two-sided marshalling yards. In South Africa, construction began on the Sentrarand marshalling yard northeast of Johannesburg , which was supposed to be even larger with four marshalling systems of 64 directional tracks, but only one system was implemented, making it the largest marshalling yard in Africa .
Unilateral marshalling yards
The largest drainage system of all time in the one-sided Taschereau station in Montréal with 83 direction tracks has already been shut down. The Nuremberg marshalling yard used to have over 100 directional tracks, including various ancillary facilities directly connected to the drainage mountain .
The currently largest drainage systems for one-sided marshalling yards are owned by the Young Yard station near Elkhart on the extreme southeastern edge of the Chicago hub area and the somewhat smaller Agincourt station in Toronto , each with 72 directional tracks. If you take all the station tracks together, however, the MacMillan station in Toronto, designed as a terminus, is even larger with 71 direction tracks and a very large subordinate group with 50 tracks.
development
With these largest marshalling yards, the climax and at the same time essentially also the conclusion of the development was reached. During the renovation of the Maschen marshalling yard, 16 or 8 direction tracks were taken out of service and more advanced computer technology and high-speed switches were used instead.
Other large marshalling yards in Europe are included in the list of marshalling yards .
Shunting yards in the cultural landscape
The large-scale track systems of the marshalling yards with their technical structures such as floodlight masts (in German-speaking countries, however, only as an exception, since there mostly a large number of smaller lamps are used instead) , signal boxes, workshops, water towers , overpasses , overpasses and underpasses for level crossing with streets as well as the The associated railway colonies became an essential and impressive part of industrial and urban cultural landscapes . In the more remote locations of marshalling yards, smaller towns grew into actual “railroad towns”.
At the same time, many marshalling yards are invisible to rail travelers when they look out of the moving passenger train , as they were laid out on routes or bypasses only used by freight trains .
Structural change in freight traffic and decline in marshalling yards
Freight transport in the present
Road traffic began to compete with rail traffic as early as the first half of the 20th century. In its second half, a general economic structural change began in the industrialized countries, in the course of which numerous large-volume typical rail transports were omitted, e.g. B. as a result of de-industrialization or the elimination of the transport of domestic coal with fine distribution to the freight stations even in more remote areas.
This resulted in a far-reaching change in the type of goods transported, from heavy bulk and capital goods typical of railways for large customers, mostly located relatively centrally on the railway lines, and also smaller customers with siding to small-scale consumer goods for countless small customers, often also located in new industrial areas without siding Episode. This also reversed the customer's demands on the means of transport. Instead of the high efficiency required for the transport of large quantities of heavy goods with less importance of speed, a faster, time-bound transport of mostly lighter goods to any location, also off the railroad, without time delays and additional costs due to reloading between rail and road, is expected.
Since, from the economic point of view of the shippers, these requirements are better met by road transport, despite its traffic jams, than by rail transport, whose greater safety and environmental friendliness are usually not decisive when choosing the means of transport, rail freight transport declined significantly while at the same time there was a rapid increase in road freight transport.
Shifting uneconomical single wagon traffic to the road
In addition to the decline in rail freight traffic as a result of the general economic structural change, single wagon traffic, which is more expensive compared to block train traffic due to the necessary shunting, mainly due to the higher personnel costs, only remained economical on the railways over a few longer routes between high-volume centers, but no longer for the other transports on short routes. for small customers or in rural areas. In single-wagon traffic, this also results in the loss of importance of the deficit in domestic traffic compared to profitable international traffic, although the actual transport volumes, regardless of the means of transport used, decrease overall with increasing distance.
The inefficiency of single wagon traffic in Europe (in contrast to Russia, China or the USA) was increased by the lack of automatic coupling of wagons, which are still equipped with manually operated screw couplings, to this day. In addition, in many countries there is the transformation of the railways from state to profit-oriented private companies which, for reasons of cost, only want to operate transports without the need for shunting.
The single wagon traffic has therefore been significantly rationalized to reduce costs in order to increase profits by:
- above all the task of general cargo traffic, which is particularly personnel-intensive and therefore cost-intensive due to the necessary reloading; further through:
- Task of separate transport of express goods,
- partial replacement by containerization and block train operation,
- Termination of the remaining siding of many small customers who are still willing to transport by rail,
- Closure of almost all small and many medium-sized freight yards,
- Downsizing of existing freight transport facilities: demolition of the public loading points (apart from pure container stations) because the station only serves sidings and a reduction in the number of station tracks;
- Rail refusal to accept short-haul transports between open freight stations,
- Conversion of the direct transport routes over the shortest routes to the hub and spoke method with connection of freight yards only to a marshalling yard instead of in each direction and concentration of long-distance freight trains on a few routes, resulting in detours of many transports;
- complete or partial closure of railway lines,
- as well as the downsizing associated with these measures with a higher burden on the remaining staff.
All of these reasons also led to the relocation of many transports previously carried by rail, especially single wagon traffic, to the road, which has replaced the railroad as the most important mode of transport since the 1960s . The single wagon traffic was therefore either severely restricted or even completely abandoned by some railway companies.
Extensive shutdowns of marshalling yards
The modern marshalling yards, which once reduced the operating costs of single wagon traffic, have become uneconomical themselves due to the uneconomical single wagon traffic and its consequent decline. They are therefore only required to a small extent by the railway companies today.
So until 1984 in Great Britain (on the theoretical basis of the rationalization program of the then BR chairman Richard Beeching from 1963, according to which the basic unit in rail freight traffic is no longer the individual freight wagon, but a whole freight train) and Japan (after rail privatization) all marshalling yards shut down; later also in Australia, Denmark, Norway and in 2006 in Spain and 2012 in Italy. In these countries there was still very little single wagon traffic, for which only smaller freight yards without a drainage mountain are shunted (in Great Britain partly in the remains of former marshalling yards). In Japan, single wagon traffic was shifted to coastal shipping due to the concentrated location of most of its industries on the south coast of the main island of Honshu .
In some countries in which the state railways have largely abolished single-wagon transport, the trend is that private railway companies are slowly starting to offer them again, as profit gradually stagnates with block trains (the number of companies that have to handle a whole train , is limited). The resulting single wagon traffic is currently far from filling the capacities of the former marshalling yards, so the private mixed freight trains are put together in smaller junction stations without a waste mountain.
Examples:
- the Norwegian State Railways discontinued single wagon traffic in 2003/2004
- the Italian State Railways stopped single wagon traffic in 2012
- English mixed freight train from EWS
In all other countries that had marshalling yards, a large part of it was also shut down, especially in rural or de-industrialized areas, in railway complexes with several marshalling yards and in border stations. In addition, in the remaining marshalling yards, the subordinate groups were mostly shut down, and sometimes the number of directional tracks was reduced, and in some bilateral shunting yards one system (without expanding the other system) was shut down. The discontinuation of general cargo traffic resulted in the closure of the reloading halls of the remaining marshalling yards. In the USA, marshalling yards were shut down, partly as a result of mergers between private railroad companies.
Disused marshalling yards
In many once typical "railway towns" such as Lehrte , Rheine , Betzdorf , Weil am Rhein ( Basel Bad Bf marshalling yard ), Amersfoort (Netherlands), Mechelen (Belgium), Aulnoye (France), Mestre (Italy) or Altoona (USA) the Shunting yards shut down as well as in some metropolises such as Copenhagen , Amsterdam , Brussels , Rome , Madrid , Montreal , Boston or Washington . In some places with several marshalling yards, even the larger one was shut down and the smaller one retained, for example in Frankfurt (Main) , Prague or Ruse (Bulgaria) . The same applies to Azerbaijan as a whole country: of the two marshalling yards built there, the larger and more modern Širvan station near Sumqayıt was shut down, while the smaller Biləcəri station near Baku remained in operation with a less favorable track plan design .
Former marshalling yards were sometimes converted into container yards or storage yards for passenger trains . Most of the time, however, they are still used with reduced track systems for some time (usually without using the discharge hill) in local traffic or to park freight wagons or even decommissioned passenger coaches after they have been shut down and are often completely demolished later, for example in 1986 what was once the second largest marshalling yard Germany in Hohenbudberg . The possible preservation of disused marshalling yards as technical monuments fails because of the high costs due to their enormous size. The marshalling yards have thus also disappeared as a once important part of economic life and the cultural landscape of many important railway traffic centers. In contrast to the disappearance of the steam locomotives, this went largely unnoticed by the public .
Shunting yards in the present
Today only very few marshalling yards are required for the remaining single-wagon traffic, which as a rule have powerful, modern automated shunting technology, such as the two largest German marshalling yards Maschen Rbf and Mannheim Rbf or the largest Austrian marshalling yard , the central shunting yard at Wien-Kledering . New marshalling yards are still being built in large numbers in China, whose rail network is still being supplemented by larger new lines for freight traffic; in other countries only sporadically.
In Germany today, marshalling yards are operationally subdivided into the categories of shunting yards ( with long - distance freight trains) and junction yards ( without long- distance freight trains). A large part of the German marshalling yards in both categories have the abbreviated addition "Rbf" in the official station names after the actual name. After the privatization of the former state-owned Deutsche Bahn , the official generic term train training station (Zbf) was introduced instead of the marshalling yard . However, this did not result in a corresponding change in the station names of individual marshalling yards that contain the designation "Rbf". The term train formation system describes the actual shunting system within the entire train formation station without its other additional systems. In the Corporate Communications different terms such as "hub", "shunting" or are instead often "hub" (: Hub English) used these terms but always refer to the one described in this article railway technical equipment. The rail freight transport division of DB ( DB Cargo ) is administratively subdivided into spatial organizational units called “Production Center” (formerly “CargoZentrum”, “CargoBahnhof” or “Branch of Cargo Transport”), which usually contain a marshalling yard and several freight yards .
In Germany, DB Netz is planning a target network of ten train formation facilities:
- Maschen Rbf near Hamburg
- Seelze Rbf near Hanover
- Seddin near Potsdam (Berlin)
- Halle (Saale) Gbf
- Oberhausen-Osterfeld
- Hagen vestibule
- Gremberg in the southeast of Cologne
- Mannheim Rbf
- Nuremberg Rbf
- Munich North Rbf
These have been or are currently being increased in their performance by switching to more modern computer-controlled interlocking technology and braking systems . At the location of the Halle (Saale) freight yard, a new marshalling yard was completed in June 2018 and is intended to replace the Leipzig-Engelsdorf station .
See also
Scientists and engineers in shunting technology
- Wilhelm Cauer (1858–1940), from 1903 TH Berlin, shunting technology, expert for railway systems [1]
- Gerhart Potthoff (1908–1989) Chair at the Dresden University of Transport Technology
- Jürgen Peter, former head of shunting technology at the BZA Minden, DB, DB AG
- Jürgen Schönbrodt, Train Formation Technology RTE Minden at DB AG
- Günther Mickler, LST system development, former head of shunting technology at BZA Munich, DB
- Helmut Naymann 1978–1990, ZM-Halle , EDG expert, design changes, trials and RTE approval
- Jürgen Gerner 1980–2015, testing and approvals from RTE, DR and DB AG, EBA expert committee RTE. From 1998 onwards, the technical terms , operational and machine-technical service regulations , guidelines, specifications , approvals, approvals and tests of the shunting technology of the Deutsche Reichsbahn and the Deutsche Bundesbahn were standardized and transferred to a new set of rules of the Deutsche Bahn AG.
- Günter Meuters 1969–2006, GGB, TKG developer, formerly ThyssenKrupp Präzisionsschmiede GmbH, Duisburg
Scientific events on the subject of shunting technology
- See International Symposium of Shunting Technology organized by DB Systemtechnik of Deutsche Bahn.
Introduction of a digital automatic coupling system ( DAK )
The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure published a study on June 29, 2020 that shows the medium-term introduction of a digital automatic coupling system (DAK) on European railways. A plan shows the approval of the DAK in the 4th quarter of 2022 as a target. The ninety-page " Creation of a conception for the EU-wide migration of a digital automatic coupling system (DAK) for rail freight traffic", briefly the technical report "DAK technology " prepared by the TU Berlin, shows how another attempt to uniformly introduce an automatic central coupling at the European railways can be realized. The technical report ends with the words: Intensive discussions with the ERA and the national security authorities are necessary to find a solution so that the migration of the DAK can succeed
literature
Note: Large-scale satellite images as well as official topographical and, more rarely, commercial maps enable knowledge of locations and structures, especially of marshalling yards, about which specialist literature has not been published or is inaccessible.
With regard to individual marshalling yards, the secondary literature sometimes provides different information with regard to the year or the number of station tracks.
Codes for indexing library holdings: Universal decimal classification : 656.212.5
Dewey Decimal Classification : 385.314 stations and train stops including marshalling yards ... ; 625.18 (technology of) marshalling yards
- Shunting technology. Darmstadt 1929ff. ISSN 0481-7621
- Shunting technology and track connection technology. Darmstadt 1972ff. ISSN 0342-8753
- Rail. Wiesbaden 1982ff. ISSN 0932-2574 (The trade journal explains in many articles the transport policy and economic background for the structural change in rail freight transport, mainly in Germany)
Corresponding information can also be found less often in hobby magazines for railway enthusiasts and in local literature. Local history sources on marshalling yards are usually not outside the release site to find, since it is usually to individual acts posts in yearbooks and magazines, which in the OPAC but as with other periodicals also only Series title instead of individual contributions listed are.
- Monographs and Articles
- Introduction, intermediate and end stations in the form of a passage, marshalling yards, freight and port stations. in: Adolf Goering, M. Oder (edit.), F. Loewe, H. Zimmermann (ed.): The railway construction. Except for preparatory work, substructure and tunnel construction. 4th vol. Arrangement of the stations. Handbook of Engineering. Vol. 5. Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1907.
- Station facilities including the track layout on the open line. in: Georg Barkhausen (ed.), Blum, von Borries, Courtin, von Weiss: The railway technology of the present. Vol. 2. The railway construction. 2nd Edition. Kreidel, Wiesbaden 1909.
- Cauer: marshalling yards. in: Viktor Freiherr von Röll (ed.) u. a .: Encyclopedia of Railways. Vol. 10. 2nd edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1923, pp. 124-138.
- Ewald Grassmann (ed.): Shunting technology. Reprint of the special editions "Shifting stations in design and operation" and "Shunting technology" from 1922 to 1938 of the magazine "Verkehrstechnische Woche". Deutsche Bundesbahn technical committee for shunting technology, Minden (Westphalia) 1952.
- Fiedler: The types of track brakes at home and abroad. In: Minutes of the 20th meeting of the specialist committee for shunting technology. Annex 2. Research archive. Vol. 76. Duisburg 1957, pp. 17-32.
- Otto Blum : Passenger and freight stations. Edited by by Dr.-Ing. habil. Kurt Leibbrand. Civil engineering manual. 2nd edition Springer, Berlin / Göttingen / Heidelberg 1961.
- Albert Delpy, Ewald Grassmann, Herbert Gruber: The marshalling yard and its technical equipment . Railway teaching library of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. Vol. 94, 3rd edition, Keller, Starnberg 1965.
- Berthold Grau : Station design. Vol. 2. Transpress, Berlin 1968.
- Deutsche Bundesbahn, Bundesbahndirektion Hamburg (ed.): The marshalling yard Maschen. Verlag Gerhard Stalling , Oldenburg 1975 (with a site plan dated December 30, 1974 on a scale of 1: 5000).
- Dott. Antonio Piciocchi: Le nuove stazioni di smistamento: Osservazioni - Considerazione - Problemi. In: Ingegneria ferroviaria. Rom 34.1979,11, pp. 733-755. ISSN 0020-0956 (including a selection of different types of marshalling yards with particularly clear diagrams)
- Wolfgang Hiller: marshalling yards. Railway construction. Transpress, Berlin 1983.
- Heinz Werner Kretschmann: Hamm railway junction. Origin and development until 1927. In: Yearbook for Railway History. 1987. Vol. 19. Ed. German Society for Railway History Karlsruhe. Uhle & Kleimann, Lübbecke 1987, pp. 5-54. ISBN 3-922657-59-1
- Dr. Michael Rhodes: The Illustrated History of British Marshalling Yards . Haynes Oxford Publishing & Co, Sparkford 1988. ISBN 0-86093-367-9
- Michael Rhodes: North American RAILYARDS . Motorbooks International (MBI Publishing Company), St. Paul US 2003. ISBN 0-7603-1578-7 (detailed description of the marshalling yards in Great Britain, USA and Canada up to their closure)
- Gérard Blier: Nouvelle geographie ferroviaire de la France.
- Vol. 1. Le réseau, structure et fonctionnement. La Vie du Rail, Paris 1991. ISBN 2-902808-34-8
- Vol. 2. L'organization régionale du trafic. La Vie du Rail, Paris 1993. ISBN 2-902808-43-7
- Vol. 3. L'impact du chemin de fer. La Vie du Rail, Paris 1996. ISBN 2-902808-58-5
- (In this railway geography with many illustrations, most of the marshalling yards actually existing in France at the time of publication are briefly described in connection with its entire railway system; there is no comparable German-language work on the conditions in Germany, as the specialist books are mostly theoretical and only a few information about actual ones built marshalling yards included)
- Martin Schieber, Bernd Windsheimer, Heinrich Imhof: 100 years of the Nuremberg marshalling yard 1903–2003. Edited by DB Cargo branch Nuremberg, DB Museum Nuremberg, History For All eV - Institute for Regional History. Sandberg Verlag, Nuremberg 2003. ISBN 3-930699-36-2
- Markus Meinold: Hamm (Westf) train station. The story of a railway junction. DGEG Medien GmbH, Hövelhof 2004. ISBN 3-937189-07-6
- Joachim Fiedler: Railways. Planning, construction and operation of railways, S, U, light rail and trams. 5th edition. Werner-Verlag, Neuwied 2005. ISBN 3-8041-1612-4
- Benno Wiesmüller, Dierk Lawrenz: The Hamburg marshalling yards and freight yards . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-88255-303-1
- Thomas Berndt: Rail freight transport . 1st edition 6-2001. Pages for RTE 106-110, Verlag BGTeubner - Bertelsmann Springer, ISBN 978-3-519-06387-2
Web links
- Track plans of all marshalling yards in the Benelux countries, many German mostly closed and individual Swiss and Austrian marshalling yards.
- Noise reduction at track brakes [2]
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Railway Office, Unit 32: Fact Sheet - Rangiertechnische facilities Mbl Shunting. Federal Railway Office, 2003, accessed on August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Jürgen Gerner: International Symposium on Shunting Technology. Retrieved August 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Gapanovitsch Valentin Alexandrovitsch, Jürgen Brandes: One of the most efficient marshalling yards in the world: OAO RZD marshalling yard Luzhskaya-Sortirovotschnaja , Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau, October 2015
- ↑ The Masterpiece of Nuremberg (1988) Film der DB, published by Lukstar09 October 10, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed on May 1, 2018.
- ↑ Francesc Arroyo: El transporte de mercancías por ferrocarril no ha dejado de descender desde hace 25 años. In: El País . September 23, 2006, Retrieved October 9, 2016 (Spanish).
- ↑ Title unknown . In: Today's Railways Europe . Issue 7, 2012, ISSN 1354-2753 , p. 53 (English).
- ^ Norwegian mixed freight train operated by Cargolink in September 2013
- ^ Italian mixed freight train operated by NordCargo in May 2014
- ^ English mixed freight train from EWS
- ↑ Fast freight cross with a past . In: DB World . No. 5 , 2017, p. 11 .
- ^ Mr Mickler / process control in the Munich North marshalling yard, 1991 BZA Munich
- ↑ Markus Hecht, Mirko Leiste, Sakia Discher : Technical report: Technology DAK. June 29, 2020, accessed August 27, 2020 .
- ^ The railway industry, among others: DAK. Retrieved August 27, 2020 .
- ↑ BMVI.de: Current page: Study on the EU-wide migration of a digital automatic coupling system (DAK). Retrieved August 27, 2020 .
