Train formation
Train formation means the combination of passenger or freight cars to form a train . In terms of rail traffic in Germany and Switzerland, the driving regulations and supplementary regulations are decisive .
- In Austria , the "Section III: Forming the Trains" is relevant in the traffic regulation (V3). It may therefore z. B .:
- only vehicles that are approved for transport by train are used,
- the length and number of axles permissible for the train run are not exceeded,
- no vehicles are used whose condition or load endangers operational safety or whose axle pressure, weight per meter or axle base does not correspond to the route to be traveled.
- In Switzerland, the document Swiss Driving Service Regulations (FDV) A2016 Federal Office of Transport (FOT), July 1, 2016 (PDF; 3 MB) is available for this. R 300.5, Section 1 Train composition is decisive.
A fundamental distinction must be made between the train formation regulations for passenger and freight trains.
Passenger trains
Passenger carriages are permanently at home in a train station and are tied to certain trains and fixed routes by the circulation and sequence plans. The type of wagons, their number and arrangement in a wagon fleet are prescribed by the train formation plan. Together with the locomotive, this creates a train . Additional regulations regulate the removal and placement of special wagons, unscheduled reinforcement wagons and the formation of special trains.
Car status indicators on the platform enable passengers to know where which car will stop on the platform before the train arrives. This serves to speed up the dispatch of the train.
Freight trains
Freight trains are usually used freely. Depending on the transport tasks involved, they not only circulate within a country, but also internationally according to agreements such as RIV or OPW .
The order of the wagon groups within a train has been determined in Germany since 1926 by the freight train formation regulation (GZV), which is set up with regard to the further course, the shunting options in the individual stations and the destination of the wagons. Further regulations relate to the maximum speed of the individual wagons, special loads and certain wagons that may only be parked at the end (or at the head) of a train.
Railcar
In the case of multiple units and multiple units, the train formation is less flexible than in the case of wagon trains carried by locomotives . Often only railcars of the same series can be coupled together. Also, ICE trains, for example, can not be coupled with other trains and will never be separated during operation.
The multiple control of most railcar series allows a maximum of three units to be put together to form a train. The smallest train unit that can be used in regular operation is then called the short train . An enforcement is then an association made up of two units, a long train an association consisting of three units.
In the case of U- and S-Bahn trains, scheduled trains are often made up of several independent but linked multiple units, depending on the time of day and the daily volume of traffic . Conceptually, a distinction is made between short trains with only one multiple unit and full and long trains with two or more multiple multiple units coupled together. At the S-Bahn Berlin , trains can be formed from up to four double railcars. A single double multiple unit is called a quarter train , two double multiple units a half train . A train made up of three double railcars is called a three-quarter train and a train made up of four double railcars is called Vollzug .
Two ICE 2 trains can be coupled together. ICE 3 , ICE T -7, ICE T-5 and ICE TD can be coupled to one another to form a double unit, ICE T-5 and ICE TD can also be coupled to one another to form a triple unit.
Many railcars have Scharfenberg couplings which can be opened at the push of a button and which lock automatically when they are slowly opened. This enables trains to be strengthened, weakened or winged at a station in transit.
The indication of the train length in the timetable or its display on the train destination indicator enables travelers to see before a train arrives how long the train will be and where it will stop.
Train formation plan
The train formation for passenger trains is determined by the railway company for a timetable period and recorded in a collective train formation plan (each for certain types of train). This work is available to all operating and administrative offices as a basis for the regular execution of the train journey. In the German Federal Railroad and its successor, the Deutsche Bahn AG, the document as is Zp AR ( Z ugbildungs p lan AR eihungen) operatively known. Since the timetable year 2019 (from December 2018) this has also been made publicly accessible (see links).
The train formation plan shown as an example for the train pair D 800/801 Saarbrücken - Düsseldorf and back from the 1982/83 timetable of the then Deutsche Bundesbahn shows a six-car train with a first-class car in the middle of the train.
Is shown
- the type and sequence of the wagons (with internal circulation number)
- the respective written car number
- the train weight and the brake hundredths
- the maximum speed (as a symbol, here 121–140 km / h)
- the presence of loudspeaker and door locking devices
- the type of train heating (here electric)
- the route of the train
- Train stations with a change of direction (here Koblenz )
- The days of traffic (some cars only run on certain days of the week, here cars 57 and 58 only on Fridays).