Poly unit 4.2Transportation Engineering

- C. CoomarasamyFormerly Professor / Director, JRPC Trichy.

4.2 Stations and yards:Definition of station and yard – Types of stations – Wayside stations – Junctions and Terminal station – Classification of yards – Passenger yard – Goods yard – Marshalling yard – Level crossing.

Transportation Engineering

Unit 4.2Stations and yards

Definition of station and yard Types of stations Wayside stations Junctions and Terminal station Classification of yards Passenger yard Goods yard Marshalling yard Level crossing.

4.2 Stations and yards

A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station, is defined as any

place on a railway line where traffic is booked and dealt with and is a railway facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or freight.

It generally consists of a platform next to the track and a station building (depot) providing related services such as

ticket sales and waiting rooms. If a station is on a single track main line, it usually has a passing loop to facilitate the traffic. The smallest stations are referred to as 'stops' or, mainly in the British Commonwealth, 'halts' (flag stops).Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such

as buses or rapid transit systems Development

4.2 Stations and yards

A rail yard, or railroad yard, is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives.

Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic.

Railroad cars are moved around by specially designed yard switchers, a type of locomotive.

Cars in a railroad yard may be sorted by numerous categories, including railroad company, loaded or unloaded, destination, car type, or whether they need repairs.

Railroad yards are normally built where there is a need to store cars while they are not being loaded or unloaded, or are waiting to be assembled into trains.

Large yards may have a tower to control operations.Many railway yards are located at strategic points on a

main line. Main line yards are often composed of an Up yard and a

Down yard, linked to the associated railroad direction. There are different types of yards, and different parts

within a yard, depending on how they are built.

4.2 Stations and yards

4.2 Stations and yards

4.2 Stations and yards

Station facilities• The typical non-terminus Passengers reach the island

platform (on right) by a pedestrian footbridge. Two further platforms are out of view.

• Railway stations usually have ticket booths (British English: "ticket office" or "booking office"), ticket machines, or both, although on some lines tickets are sold on board the trains.

• Ticket sales may also be combined with customer service desks or convenience stores.

• Many stations include a form of convenience store. Larger stations usually have fast-food or restaurant facilities.

• In some countries, stations may also have a bar or pub. Other station facilities may include: toilets, left-luggage, lost-and-found, departures and arrivals boards, luggage carts, waiting rooms, taxi ranks and bus bays.

• Larger or manned stations tend to have a greater range of facilities.

• A most basic station might only have platforms, though it might still be distinguished from a halt, a stopping or halting place that may not even have platforms.

4.2 Stations and yards

Station facilities

The interior of the Chennai Central,one of the busiest train stations in India

A small terminus station in St Ives, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom

A remote railway halt in Wales, United Kingdom

4.2 Stations and yards

Purpose of a railway station:• For exchange of passengers • For exchange of goods.• For control of train movements• To enable the trains on a single line track

to cross from opposite directions.• To enable the following express trains to overtake• For taking diesel or coal and water for locomotives• For detaching engines and running staff• For detaching or attaching of compartments and wagons• For sorting of bogies to form new trains,

housing of locomotive in loco sheds.• In emergencies in ease of dislocation of track due to

rains, accidents etc...

4.2 Stations and yards

Classifications of Railway stations:

Railway stations

Operational

BlockNon-Block

3.Class C

2.Class B

1.Class A 1.Class D

2.Flag

3.Spl.class

Functional

1. Wayside

2.Junction

3.Terminal

4.2 Stations and yards

Block stations: Block sections- are

compartments into which railway lines are divided, & are

established so as to safety space the trains behind each other.

Block Stations –are made at the end of block sections and are equipped with signals which demarcate the limits of the block sections

4.2 Stations and yards

Class A: Such a station is one where the Line Clear indication for the block may not be given unless the line where the train is to be received is clear at least for up to the starter signal (or, in some cases, for at least 400m ahead of the home signal). These are stations where many trains normally run through without stopping at a high speed, hence the need for the safety margin to prevent accidents in cases of trains overrunning signals.

Class B: Such a station is one where the Line Clear indication may be given before the section of the line within the station has been cleared for reception of a train. Branch lines and routes with lower running speeds fall into this category.

Braaking distance

Home signal Starter signal

Warner signal

Sand hump

Sand hump180 m

400 m

4.2 Stations and yards

Class C: This is a station (or block hut) marking an end of a block section, with light traffic or where no trains are booked to stop, such as an intermediate block post. (Sometimes these stations exist only in the form of a signal cabin that controls the approach to another station.)

Permission to approach may not be given for a train unless the whole of the last preceding train has passed complete at least 400m beyond the home signal and is known to be continuing on its journey.

Adequate distanceBraking distance

4.2 Stations and yards

Class D: This is a station which does not form the boundary of a block section but which does form a stopping place for trains.

Flag station: Trains are stopped by various

ad hoc arrangements prescribed in view of the local conditions -- the driver may simply know to stop the train there, or it may be flagged down on demand, etc. Also known as a non-block station or flag station.

4.2 Stations and yards

Stations of

Classes A through C are known as block stations. The Class C stations are also sometimes known as block huts or block posts.

Class D stations are known as non-block stations - they do not mark the ends of block sections. (Note that there also exist Intermediate Block Posts where block sections can be terminated without the presence of a station.)

Special Station Any station that is not classified under one of the classes A through D is known as a Special Station and must use specific working rules issued by the Commissioner of Rail Safety.

Sometimes stations are classified as Class A if there is a bridge or steep gradient just before the station in one or both directions, so that it is not safe for trains to stop there before entering station limits.

4.2 Stations and yards

Commercial Classification: Stations are also classified based on their commercial importance into categories 'A', 'B', ... etc., which is rather confusing.

The particular classification scheme used has to be inferred from the context.

In the commercial importance classification scheme, a non-suburban station with annual passenger earnings over Rs 60 million is a Category A station.

Category B stations- earnings between Rs 30 million and 60 million.

Any suburban station not falling into the 'B' category is considered to be a Category C station.

4.2 Stations and yards

Non-suburban stations with earnings between Rs 10 million and 30 million are Category D stations while

non-suburban stations with lower earnings fall into Category E.

Halt stations are classified as Category F stations.

Interestingly, the commercial classification determines many of the construction aspects of the station:

Stations of Category A or C have

high level platforms, while those in categories B and D have

low level platforms. Stations of categories E and F have

only rail-level platforms.

4.2 Stations and yards

The "Road" after the station indicates that it's the nearest railhead for that particular town.

The road to that town originates at this station: you still need to travel a while by road to get to that town.

Examples: Kodaikanal Road, Khurda Road, Mantralayam Road, Jajhpur Kheonjar Road, Nasik Road, etc.

Jajpur Keonjhar Road is an interestingly named station as the station serves as the railway access point for two towns, Jajpur which is 32km south-east of the station and Keonjhar which is 127km north-west of the station.

At some such "Road" stations, e.g., Kodaikanal Road, there exists a Railway Out Agency, which is an agency which can issue combined road-rail tickets to passengers, and which operates the road portion of the journey from the station to the town.

The bus connections are provided to coincide with train arrivals. Out agencies used to be listed in the Indian Bradshaw before it ceased publication in its detailed form.

4.2 Stations and yardsA wayside Station :

on a Single line

Simplest layout- A through line, A loop line to enable trains to cross each other, A passenger platform and a station building and A goods loop and a goods platform

on a Double line

one or two passenger-platformsover bridges or subwaysa crossover to facilitate movement of trainsa refuge line to allow fast moving trains to overtake slow moving trains in the same directiona goods platforma goods shedstation building a shunting track a sand hump

On a Triple line

a main line consists of two loops on either side i.e., all up trains on one loop all down trains on the otherone platform because the use of twoplatforms foot-over bridgenecessary +other facilities

4.2 Stations and yards

4.2 Stations and yards

A wayside station on single line

4.2 Stations and yardsA junction is a train station where

two or more rail routes meet. It could be a terminus or an en-route train station.

During a journey, the term station stop may be used in announcements, to differentiate a halt during which passengers may alight from a halt for another reason, such as a locomotive change.

A railway stop is a spot along a railway line, usually between stations or at a seldom-used station, where passengers can board and exit the train.

While a junction or interlocking usually divides two or more railway lines or routes, and thus has remotely or locally operated signals, a station stop does not.

A station stop usually does not have any tracks other than the main tracks, and may or may not have switches (points, crossovers).

4.2 Stations and yards

A "terminal" or "terminus" is a station at the end of a railway line.

Trains arriving there have to end their journeys (terminate) or reverse out of the station.

Depending on the layout of the station, this usually permits travellers to reach all the platforms without the need to cross any tracks

– the public entrance to the station and the main reception facilities being at the far end of the platforms.

Sometimes, however, the railway line continues for a short distance beyond

the station, and terminating trains continue forwards after

depositing their passengers, before either proceeding to sidings or reversing to the

station to pick up departing passengers.

4.2 Stations and yards

.

TerminusAerial view of the Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) in Zurich, Switzerland; As well as being a terminus, the station now has underground S-Bahn platforms serving a newer line that runs beneath the city centre.

Grand Central Terminal in New York City is the world's largest railway station by number of platforms, having 67 tracks on two levels.

4.2 Stations and yards.

Yards

LocomotiveYards

MarshallingYards

Goods Yards

Passenger bogie Yards

Main function:-to provide facilities for the safe movementof passengers and vehicles for the use of passengers. e.g.,-passenger platforms-specific importance at terminals or junctions where extra bogies are accommodated and cleaning, washing,or storing is done.

Main function:-to provide facilities for receiving , loading and unloading ,delivery of goodsand the movementof goods-vehicles-all stations except flag stations are provided with goods yards .e.g.,-goods platforms-storing goods.-goods sidings.

Machine to receive, break upre-form, and dispatch trainsonwards.-provided at important junctionstations.-loaded and empty goods wagons arefirst received,-then separatedsorted and dispatched( at wayside stations)onwards in fulltrains.

Locomotives are housed, and where all facilities forcoaling, watering,repairing, oiling, cleaning etc., areprovided for servicing and stability of Locomotives-installed atJunctionStations-constructed onthe same side as theMarshalling yards.

4.2 Stations and yards. Classification yards or

Marshalling yards orSorting yard

Flat-shunted yards Gravity yard Hump yard

A flat yard has no hump, and relies on locomotives for all car movements.-costly due to more consumption of Power-justified where limited space availability

A gravity yard is built on a natural slope and relies less on locomotives-controlled by manual wagon brakes -requires certain slope for formation-but topography may not permit-requires more area

A hump yard has a constructed hill, over which freight cars are shoved by yard locomotives, and then gravity is used to propel the cars to Various sorting tracks;-requires more area

4.2 Stations and yards

Hump yardsThese are the largest and most effective classification yards with

the largest shunting capacity – often several thousand cars a day.

The heart of these yards is the hump: a lead track on a hill (hump) over which the cars are pushed by the engine.

Single cars, or some coupled cars in a block, are uncoupled just before or at the crest of the hump and roll by gravity into their destination tracks in the classification bowl (the tracks where the cars are sorted).

Hump yard in Vienna, Austria A switch engine pushes a car over the hump at Kornwestheim yard  

4.2 Stations and yards

4.2 Stations and yardsLevel crossing:A point at which

a railway and a road cross, especially one with barriers that close the road when a train is scheduled to pass is called Level crossing.

The surface of the road is kept at rail level and grooves are left in the road surface along the inner edges of the rails for the movement of wheel flanges.

These grooves are provided with guard rails which are spiked to wooden sleepers.

Classification Factors :1. Nature of the road2. Nature of the traffic on the road3. Number of trains passing over the level crossing

4.2 Stations and yards

Classification of Level Crossings -(1) The classification of level crossings should be settled in consultation with the Road authorities concerned keeping in view the class of the road, visibility conditions, the volume of the road traffic and the number of trains passing over the level crossing.

(2) The classification of level crossings shall be as under-

(a) Special..............: for roads - where traffic is exceptionally heavy(b) 'A' Class..............: for roads - grant trunk roads(c) 'B' Class..............: for roads - metaled roads(d) 'C Class..............: for roads – unmetaled roads(e) 'D' Class for cattle crossings.

(3) Level crossings over colliery, factory and other similar sidings where Railway traffic is light may however be dealt with according to local conditions, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Railway Safety concerned being obtained in each case to the measures adopted for the safe working of trains over the crossing.

4.2 Stations and yards

Categories of Roads - (1) For the purpose of this standard, Roads shall be categorised as under-

(a) Class I roads -

(i) National Highways, 

(ii) State Highways,(iii) Important roads within municipal towns, and(iv) Roads in and around towns where road and rail traffic is heavy.

(b) Class II roads -(i) Major and other District roads,(ii) Unimportant roads within municipal towns,(iii) Roads within non-Municipal towns including those within shunting limits of Railway stations, and(iv) Other surfaced roads.

(c) Class III roads –

(i) Earth roads, and

(ii) Cart tracks.

(d) Class IV roads –

Cattle crossings and foot-path.

4.2 Stations and yards

Grade Crossing Surface Dimensions Road, including a path or trail

4.2 Stations and yards

(b) Sidewalk, path, or trail alongside a road

4.2 Stations and yards