.jpg)
20
Canadian railways look forward to sharing what they've learned about the operation of long freight trains at a conference next June in Calgary, says Michael Roney, General Manager Technical Standards & Chief Engineer, Engineering Services of Canadian Pacific.
The best arrangement is locomotives at the front and rear of the train as well as in the middle, explains Roney, chairman of the International Heavy Haul Association and cochairman of its 2011 conference in Calgary that will look at railroading in extreme climates.
Distributing the locomotives through the train "stabilizes and equalizes the forces exerted on the freight cars," he adds. That reduces the pushing and pulling on the cars and that produces less wear and tear on them and the rails. The result is a safer operation compared to conventional trains where all the locomotives are at the head end. Even with locomotives at the front and back of the train, there's more push and pull on the cars than in a distributed power train (DP) as the train slows or picks up speed.
The difference between a DP and a conventional train shows up in track monitoring equipment, he adds. “You can tell from the monitors by the amount of lateral forces in the train” whether it’s a DP train. They generate 20% less lateral force on the tracks than conventional trains.
In a recent report, the Transportation Safety Board noted that since 1995, “freight trains have increased 25% in terms of size and weight making it all the more important that freight cars in those trains are positioned to reduce the stress on them. If you liken a long train to an accordion, pulling forces tend to separate cars and pushing forces will compress them together.”
Transport Canada said a research project, that’s expected to finalize its findings this summer, is examining the influence of grades, curves, distribution of power and train handling practices on the long trains.
In addition, the industry has brought improved software on line to better control the factors that affect these longer, heavier trains with respect to the geography of the terrain over which they operate, the department said.
Mike Lowenger, vice president of operations and regulatory affairs with the Railway Association of Canada, said as trains grow beyond the traditional mile long length “the marshalling (arrangement) of the freight cars becomes more important. There’s a lot of science at work.”
Canadian railways have invested time and money into perfecting the operation of long trains as part of their efforts to improve the efficiency of their operations. “We’ve got mountain grades, long curves, adverse weather and differing conditions just going through the Rocky Mountains,” Lowenger noted. “We will share our experiences with officials from railroads all over the world.”
The Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway has run 240 car trains for years with distributed power but it only has to contend with two or three grade crossings, he adds. CN and CP have to pay attention to all the crossings in the urban areas they traverse with long trains.
Roney says CP uses software to guide the marshalling of its DP trains to make sure that light and empty cars are located where they won’t encounter a lot of pressure from heavier, loaded cars. “It takes longer to marshal a DP train but the crews who put them together learn how to do it.”
In theory there’s no limit on how long a DP train can be, he says. Except that any train it encounters has to be able take a siding to let the longer train pass. The Canadian railways have been lengthening their sidings to 12,000 feet to accommodate longer trains.
The Calgary conference will spend a lot of time looking at how DP trains are handled in North America, Australia, Brazil, China, Norway, Russia and South Africa where differing climatic and operating conditions affect the operations.
At the conference, the railways will discuss the planning and preparation involved in operating in less-than-perfect conditions. By sharing their experience, they can learn to reduce the impact of challenging environments and adverse weather on their operations. The bottom line is for the railways to be able operate year-round as though it is a perfect summer day, Roney says.