Sorting

General description

A sorting is an installation specialized in the treatment of the traffic of freight, several kilometers length, which is composed of three parts:

a beam of reception (of ten ways) where the trains are received on standby disconnection,
a beam of disconnection or sorting (the greatest beam including/understanding on average 20 to 40 ways, in Europe often 32 and France often 48 ways);
a beam starting (ten ways), where the trains in departure are formed.

Various types of sorting

There exist three types of different sortings: sorting on the level, sorting with hillock, sorting with continuous gravity.

Sorting on the level

Explanation

In a sorting on the level (i.e.: flat) an oar of coaches is brought towards the beam of sorting by push. The coaches are démaillés with fur with measurement of their arrival on shunting. This system being very intensive in operations, it is relatively slow. In general, especially in Europe, it applied especially to small sortings (less approximately 12 ways in the beam of sorting, but in certain countries they exist also some large building sites of sorting without hump in a gravity yard.

In addition there exists in the whole world a multitude of these marshalling yards (in private hand) mainly on the site of large factories, ports, and mining.

Sorting with hillock

It is currently the most effective type of the sorting, it allows the sorting of several thousands of coaches per day.

Operation

Between the beam of reception and the beam of sorting, the “bump is” or “ridges sorting” on which the trains to disconnect are driven back (thorough) after “being démaillés” (unhooking of the attachment S) and from where the coaches go down while running by gravity and are directed (“disconnection”) towards the various ways of the “beam of disconnection” or “sorting”, each way being assigned to a particular destination.

To regulate the speed of the disconnected coaches, in recent or modernized sortings, the zone of disconnection to the foot of the hump in a gravity yard is provided with brakes of ways.

Speed is regulated according to the coaches (empty or charged coach, light or heavy loading, number of the axles, quality of bearing of the coach…).

These brakes function is by a pneumatic system (for example the United States, France, Belgium, Russia or China) or hydraulics (for example Germany, Italy or Netherlands).

To slow down the coaches in end of the road, of the agents present between the ways, enrayeurs, shoes pose on the rails. The most modern sortings eliminated this painful and dangerous task by carrying out the “shooting with the goal” thanks to a second rank of brakes of way remote-controlled since the cabin of control.

A way makes it possible to avoid the bump for certain prohibited coaches of bump, because transporting a fragile or significant loading.

Various types of sorting to hillock

sortings with single hillock

In Europe the beams of disconnection of sortings comprise several brushes from approximately 6 'has 12 ways, each one with a brake of way; but often completely 32 ways in four brushes with eight ways of symmetrical provision.

With the the United States the brushes comprise 6 to 10 ways in general, normally in asymmetrical order.

sortings with two hillocks

Some great sortings comprise two systems with hillock located on both sides sorting thus allowing a sorting in the two directions separate.

Most important are:

the sorting of Maschen close to Hamburg, Germany
the Bailey Yard with North Platte, the United States
the Clearing Yard close to Chicago, the United States

Sorting with continuous slope

These sortings function almost with identical of sortings to hillock. Only exception, here all the beams of ways are in declivity ensuring a continuous gradient. The majority of these stations were in Germany and formerly in England. They were built on sites where the construction of a sorting with hillock posed problems.

Greatest sorting with slope still continues in activity is that of Nuremberg, Germany.

These sortings also have a great capacity but require more personnel.

Importance and problems

Sortings are an essential wheel of the system of routing of freight in the isolated coaches, also called “allotment”. Each sorting serves a zone of collecting-distribution from where it receives the trains of local service road, and is in relation to other sortings by trains known as inter-sorting. An isolated coach thus borrows successively a train of collecting, then one or more trains inter-sortings, and finally a train of distribution to the consignee.

Sortings function by pulsations, especially the night. The trains of collecting arrive in end-of-day, it follows a phase of successive disconnections, then the formation of a battery of trains at the beginning.

The organization of the system of allotment aims to gather the coaches so as to better fill the non-stop trains with long course. An optimum must be found between the frequency of these trains, which conditions the total times of routing, and their filling which influences the costs.

The problems arising from this system are:

shocks, rare, but always possible because of the method of sorting by gravity,
the times of routing, which are the resultant of a complex succession of operations, especially in international traffic,
the cost price, which adds that with each elementary operation.

So this system which is addressed to relatively light unit sendings, was more particularly affected by road competition, and is in a phase of decline; many sortings were closed and the zones very widened service roads. Certain countries (Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Japan and the Australia) completely gave up this system and thus the routing of coaches isolated to concentrate on freight in the direct whole trains and the freight combined (containers, mobile cases).

Railway complexes with several sortings

In the neighborhoods of certain metropolises like in great industrial areas (p.ex. the area Saar-Lor-Lux, the Hainaut, the area of the the Ruhr, High-Silesia, the Donbass) and in the centers with great demographic concentration (p.ex. Paris, Lyon, Moscow, Berlin, Hamburg) several sortings were installed.

Universally the greatest number of sortings in a railway complex is found in the industrial valley of the the Ruhr.

In more the big cities of the the United States and Canada each railway company (private) established its own marshalling yard, or are still added sortings of the companies of local transit (p.ex. with Chicago, the greatest rail junction of the world).

In other countries the construction of several sortings close to the same city also results from the various private railway companies serving this city and which returned thereafter in the hand of the State or a large national company.

The reasons are often also the need to increase the capacity or to create more effective means of sorting between fast transport and the slow transport of the goods.

Sortings and the army

During the First World War some sortings with military destination were built in France.

The rail as the road being often very important for the army of a country this one often played a decisive part at the time of the choice of the establishment of the site.

Thus in much of country the installations and technical details were subjected to the secrecy of State, just as with the cartographic and photographic censure.

History

Beginnings

The first marshalling yard to gravity continues was built in Germany with Dresden about 1846. From the years 1860 within sight of an increasingly important rail traffic in the stations with goods it proved to be necessary to build special stations of sorting apart from the existing stations.

They was in general sortings without hillock but often already with ways in declivity. Sometimes the arrangement of the coaches was done using horses in the stations flat.

As helps with the arrangement one found there with the head of the beam X of the turntables or sometimes of the traversers.

Technological advance

The first sorting with hillock or rather on the level was built in a station of transit close to Leipzig, Germany about 1858.

In France one sees being born a marshalling yard with slope continued close to Saint-Etienne, the station of Black cotton soil.

To England the marshalling yard of Shildon follows then.

It is in Germany in station of Speldorf close to Mülheim year DER the Ruhr that the first sorting with hillock (rising and downward), as one knows them today, is born. The mechanical signal boxes of time then asked for the construction of several intermediate stations in the zone of distribution.

The deceleration and braking of the coaches were done by means of scotch blocks which were to be posed with the hand by the Enrayeur S.

The company Büssing in Germany then invents a brake by shoes mechanized, precursory of the brakes of way of today.

Mechanization

With the beginning of the year 20 first great sortings were equipped by brakes with way. Thus it into 1923 that the sorting of Gibson close to Chicago is equipped with a relatively complicated brake, followed that of Hamm (Westf.) in simpler and modern Germany, built in 1925 but is closed today.

As from these years the first electromechanical systems of shunting allow the service starting from one only signal box.

Automation

The first sorting with automation partial with order by computer of the brakes with ways and shuntings was installed about 1955 in the marshalling yard of Kirk close to Gary in the area of Chicago.

Followed then the remote control of the engines of pushed starting from the signal box.

Automation played a great factor in the rationalization and centralization of the marshalling yards with the result that many stations with two heads could be taken back with a head and that in parallel small sortings were closed completely.

In countries with late industrial rise as p.ex. the China much of new marshalling yards were installed as from the Fifties among which that of Zhengzhou, largest on the continent of Asia.

Greatest sortings of the world

Bailey Yard sorting with two heads close to North Platte to the Nebraska on the Transcontinental of San Francisco to Chicago, (64 + 50 starting ways).

Maschen in the south of Hamburg, (64 + 48 starting ways)

In South Africa the construction of a marshalling yard to two heads close to Sentrarand in the North-East of Johannesbourg was projected with 64 + 64 starting ways. However only one side was carried out, but nevertheless it is greatest sorting on the African continent.

the largest station with a head ever built was with Taschereau, Montreal, Canada. It comprised 83 starting ways, from now on it is except service.

the sorting of with gravity one-way of Nuremberg counted formerly (including the related works) more than 100 starting ways.

the station of Young Yard close to Elkhart in the south-east of Chicago, as well as the station of Agincourt close to Toronto are currently with 72 starting ways greatest sortings with a hillock.

With regard to the number of ways, sorting Mac Milan close to Toronto is largest with a principal group of 71 starting ways, follow-up of a secondary group of 50 ways.

Tinsley Marshalling Yard was with its opening in 1965 the largest marshalling yard of Europe, with 4 groups adding up 97 ways; 13 ways with sorting reception, 53 with principal sorting, 8 at the beginning express train and 23 with the secondary departure. Principal sorting was carried out by hillock and governs by a tower of control. A fraction of original sorting from now on is used.

Marshalling yards in France

Remaining marshalling yards in France as from the year 2007:

Some sortings out of France

Germany

Maschen Rbf (Rangierbahnhof, German for sorting) close to Hamburg, the greatest sorting of the Europe
Seddin close to Potsdam, for the railway complex Berliner
Market (Saale)
Seelze Rbf close to Hanover
Hagen - Vorhalle (for the great railway complex of the Basin of the Ruhr)
Gremberg close to Cologne
Mannheim Rbf
Nürnberg Rbf (Nuremberg)
Northern München Rbf (Munich).

In Germany a score of other sortings, whose also some major like Kornwestheim Rbf close to Stuttgart, is in the course of closing until the end of the year 2007.

England

In England, a wave of reorganizations involves the closing of many sortings starting from the Années 1980. The term used in English is marshalling yard with the exception of the United States which use classification yard or also in everyone anglophone hump yard for sorting by hillock. Railway freight transport in the United Kingdom being more important, the number of marshalling yards is important also and are strewn with share the country.

The goods stations and open sortings in England and Wales are:

Argentina

Villa Maria (the only one with hillock in Argentina, possibly closed)

Belgium

In Belgium the marshalling yards are called station of formation in French-speaking area.

In Dutch-speaking area it is vormingsstation

The marshalling yard of Namur specialized for the international transport of containers.

Spain

In Spain sorting is called estación clasificación . Largest is that of Vicálvaro-CSF in the east of Madrid whose beam of sorting counts 30 ways.

The United States

The United States has many the marshalling yards, included/understood Bailey Yard, greatest sorting in the world.

A List of the Marshalling yards in the United States

Italy

Its Italian name is: scalo di smistamento or stazione di smistamento .

Principal sortings of this country are those of Orbassano to Turin, Milano Smto, Cervignano Smto in the North-East of the country, Bologna San Donato and Marcianise Smto close to Caserta in the north of Napoli.

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Dutch name: rangeerterrein

Romania

The marshalling yards are called in Rumanian: triaj, also staţie of triaj or gară of triaj. Principal sortings in Romania are: Socola (Iaşi), Dej Triaj, Oradea Is Triaj, Arad, Ronaţ Triaj (Timişoara), Caransebeş Triaj, Simeria Triaj, Coşlariu (Teiuş), Braşov Triaj, Adjud, Barboşi Triaj (Galaţi), Ploieşti Triaj, Goleşti (Piteşti), Craiova Triaj, Bucureşti Triaj (Bucharest) and Palas (Constanţa).

Switzerland

Basle: Basel SBB RB in Muttenz
Zurich: Zurich-Limattal (between Spreitenbach and Dietikon)
Lausanne - Sorting with Denges
Chiasso Smto. (Sorting) .

See too

Railroad | Station | Transport

References

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