Rail Yard Research Articles

UP Railroad: Unreliable and unsafe

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has dealt another blow to the troubled Union Pacific (UP) Railroad finding that and service problems have been inextricably linked. UP's inability to seamlessly integrate the operations of Southern Pacific Railroad, which it acquired in 1996, into its own operations and to provide adequate service to shippers, including many in the Gulf Coast chemical industry, is well known. Not so well known is that UP also has been plagued by accidents. In the first eight months of 1997, four UP employees were killed in series of rail yard accidents. And in the 11 weeks between June 22 and Aug. 31, 1997, UP had five major collisions that caused seven deaths. Reviews of those accidents have led FRA to conclude that UP lacked many safety initiatives which may have addressed or prevented many accidents, and that a fundamental breakdown existed in some of the basic railroad operating procedures and ...

Combined Anaerobic/Aerobic Biostimulation for Remediation of Rail Yards Contaminated by Diesel Engine Repair and Maintenance

Perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) have been commonly used in the repair and maintenance of diesel engine locomotives. Improper handling, storage, and disposal lead to contamination of rail yard soils and groundwater with chlorinated ethylenes. Benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, and xylene (BTEX) are also common contaminants at rail yards because of the leakage of diesel fuel storage tanks and spills of diesel fuel. Co-contamination of groundwater with BTEX and chlorinated ethylenes allows for the application of anaerobic/aerobic bioremediation to achieve mineralization of both types of compounds. Bench scale laboratory experiments were run to select and enrich for an undefined, mixed, microbial consortium able to mediate PCE dechlorination to dichloroethylene (DCE), mineralization of the DCE, and mineralization of aromatic compounds. A periodically operated suspended culture reactor created alternating anaerobic/aerobic environments. When glucose was added to the reactor as the sole electron donor, the mixed culture dechlorinated PCE to cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (cDCE) in 24 h. When phenol and glucose were added to the reactor, the mixed culture dechlorinated PCE to cDCE, metabolized the influent phenol, and oxidized 90 percent of the cDCE produced in 24 h. Because both phenol and toluene can induce the enzymes necessary for mineralization of TCE and DCE, an anaerobic/aerobic bioremediation approach has potential application for remediation of groundwater at rail yards co-contaminated with diesel fuel and chlorinated ethylenes.

Record penalties levied for '87 chemical fire

After 10 years of litigation, a New Orleans jury has responded to plaintiffs' complaints that they were harmed by a butadiene railcar fire that occurred in their neighborhood: They awarded a record $3.4 billion in punitive and compensatory damages to be shared by 8,000 plaintiffs and their lawyers. The damages are to be paid by nine companies named as defendants in the suit: The incident involved a railcar carrying butadiene that leaked and caught fire while parked in a New Orleans rail yard in September 1987. About 1,000 nearby residents were evacuated for 36 hours while the fire was allowed to burn itself out. No serious injuries, deaths, or major property damage were reported at the time of the incident. The plaintiffs complained of physical and mental anguish, which they attribute to the incident. Compensatory damages of $2 million, plus 10 years' interest, were assessed against all defendants and awarded to 20 plaintiffs. All 8,000 ...

The Development of Ergonomic Guidelines for Railroad Hand Switch Operation

Injury statistics and worker perceptions of relative task difficulty and frequency suggest that the operation of hand switch stands/switches may be a problem task in the railroad industry (Kuciemba, Page, and Kerk, 1988). Injuries associated with this task are mostly over exertion in nature, 43% of which occur to the lower back. This paper describes how we developed ergonomic guidelines specifically to address hand switch operation. These guidelines could be applied to: identify switches that may pose excessive risk of injury when operated, evaluate maintenance procedures, and assist in developing switch stand design alternatives. The guidelines specifically define hand forces across the range of switch lever motion encountered when operating the switch stand. There are two sets of guidelines, lower guidelines and upper guidelines. The lower guidelines are defined by the back compression and static strength criteria NIOSH (1981) uses to define their Action Limit, along with a stability criterion. The upper guidelines are defined by the same two criteria NIOSH (1981) uses to define their Maximum Permissible Limit, along with the stability criterion. We videotaped 20 workers operating 50 different switches at 3 different rail yards to classify worker methods into general categories. Then the postures associated with each of the general methods were recreated using 5th and 95th percentile workers, photographed, and digitized for use in the University of Michigan 3D Static Strength Prediction ProgramTM. For each posture, we then calculated the maximum hand forces that separately satisfied the lower and upper criteria. The maximum hand forces under the two sets of constraints define our guidelines.

Computer technology and the job of the First‐Line Supervisor

This article presents a detailed case study of changes in the job tasks of British Rail yard supervisors under the routine operation of a computerised system of freight information control in order to critically evaluate the claim that computer technology is contributing to the demise of first‐line supervisors.

An efficient sequencing model for humping in a rail yard

A computer model for sequencing trains into the rail yard humping process is presented. The algorithm, named HSS, consists of two main components: a screening technique and a detailed cost minimization procedure for the humping and assembly phases. The screening technique reduces the number of likely candidates for priority humping from a large number of available inbound trains in the receiving yard. The model establishes an efficient hump sequence by promoting both compatibility between inbound trains and departure trains as well as operator service priorities. Dynamic programming is used to minimize overall rail yard throughout costs for a given interval of operation. The screening technique is illustrated with the use of two simple examples. In addition, an example pilot study illustrates the sequencing of eight real trains at the CN Taschereau Rail Yard in Montreal according to the following three methods of operation: FIFO, current operation, and the proposed HSS model. Comparison of these pilot results indicates that the HSS model is very promising.

PMAKE Analysis: Predicting Rail Yard Time Distributions Using Probabilistic Train Connection Standards

Any study of rail freight service or freight car utilization must eventually address the reliability of train connection performance. In a series of case studies over the past 10 years, the MIT Rail Group developed PMAKE analysis as an effective means of doing this. The PMAKE methodology has been used extensively in service planning by a number of railroads and has been used in two major rail network models. The Freight Car Utilization Program has supported two demonstration projects showing how to incorporate PMAKE analysis in railroad terminal control systems. The paper reviews three other major modeling approaches used in rail yard studies: simulation, queuing, and capacity planning. These approaches have had limited effectiveness in prediction train connection performance and in supporting management control systems. PMAKE analysis improves upon these approaches by making it easier to (a) calibrate models of yard performance and (b) incorporate analytic techniques within the operating control system. In short, PMAKE analysis builds a bridge between operations research technique and management control. The paper includes the parameters of PMAKE functions calibrated for various rail yards. It also includes the mathematical basis for PMAKE analysis and shows several means of calibrating PMAKE functions. This paper, therefore, provides a complete description of PMAKE analysis, including its development, its relation to other methods of terminal analysis and its use by the rail industry.

Community response to railway yard noise

Community reaction to railway yard noise is analyzed for over 500 residents living adjacent to five rail yards in Ontario. Regression models are investigated for annoyance and sleep disturbance of the exposed population as a function of the measured noise levels due to the individual sources as well as the composite of all operations in the yard. Percent of respondents highly annoyed shows a stronger correlation than does the percent annoyed at all with measured sound levels. Outdoor annoyance is correlated better than indoor annoyance with measured sound levels. Lps is judged to be a more accurate descriptor of community annoyance as compared to 24‐h Leq, for yard noises.

Mica mat for insulation

Fuel cell power for locomotives combines the environmental benefits of a catenary-electric locomotive with the higher overall energy efficiency and lower infrastructure costs of a diesel-electric. A North American consortium, a public–private partnership, is developing a prototype hydrogen-fueled fuel cell-battery hybrid switcher locomotive for urban and military-base rail applications. Switcher locomotives are used in rail yards for assembling and disassembling trains and moving trains from one point to another. At 127 tonnes (280,000 lb), continuous power of 250 kW from its (proton exchange membrane) PEM fuel cell prime mover, and transient power well in excess of 1 MW, the hybrid locomotive will be the heaviest and most powerful fuel cell land vehicle yet. This fast-paced project calls for completion of the vehicle itself near the end of 2007. Several technical challenges not found in the development of smaller vehicles arise when designing and developing such a large fuel cell vehicle. Weight, center of gravity, packaging, and safety were design factors leading to, among other features, the roof location of the lightweight 350 bar compressed hydrogen storage system. Harsh operating conditions, especially shock loads during coupling to railcars, require component mounting systems capable of absorbing high energy. Vehicle scale-up by increasing mass, density, or power presents new challenges primarily related to issues of system layout, hydrogen storage, heat transfer, and shock loads.