Between the time a railroad car is loaded with freight and the time it is unloaded at its destination, it may travel as part of several different trains. The task of transferring cars from train to train is accomplished at classification yards, located at strategic points in the rail network. A typical classification yard consists of a single input track at one end and one or more output tracks at the other end. Several parallel storage tracks connect the two. Trains enter the classification yard in a serial manner and are assembled on the several storage tracks in parallel. The highest point in a gravity classification yard, known as the "crest" or "hump", is located on the input track, just ahead of the switches that feed the storage tracks. All tracks slope downhill from this point.
The basic building blocks of a conventional retarder control system are described from a generic-functional viewpoint. The central function of a retar...
The first step to improving the performance of retarder control algorithms is to conduct an exhaustive study of existing algorithms. Retarder control ...
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