Timelapse video of a Humpyard in operation

[beaulieu]

I found an interesting video showing operations in SBB's Limmattal humpyard in Spreitenbach, Switzerland. This is SBB's busiest humpyard and serves the Zurich area. This humpyard probably sorts more cars than any humpyard in the US. Later in the video you can see the mechanical mules in action trimming the bowl tracks without the need for a switch engine. This technology is fairly common in major European humpyards, but it isn't used in any humpyards in North America to my knowledge.

Limmattal Yard in Timelapse

 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

That's just freakin' awesome - thanks so much for sharing !!!   

About 4 mins. 27 secs. long.  So far I've only viewed it once, but here are some comments:

At about 1 min. there's an ''Oops!'' moment when a large gray car either hung up or had to be stopped, retrieved, and rehumped. 

At about 1 min. 45 secs. some yard workers can be seen apparently taking their lives in their hands - or feet - by crossing between cuts that are not all that far apart . . .    I don't think I'd be doing that !

Some of the cars/ cuts seem to be moving faster than the ones just ahead, closing the distance between them.  That doesn't leave much time to throw the switches between them - some sharp work and 'heads-up ball' there !

Some of those cuts looked pretty long, too - maybe 6 or 7 cars ?

About 3/4 of the way through there's a view of the yard looking kind of back towards the hump - and what looks like a giant white clock tower almost into the background ?

I saw the 'mules' shuttling back 'empty', but can't quite figure out how they are powered, and did not recognize them moving any cars.  Any more info on that ?

I hope Carl/ CShaveRR sees this - might give him some ideas.  Better yet, something like this could be done from public property at the NS Allentown Yard hump nearby to me, esp. once the vegetation has fallen for the winter, and/ or is cut in the critical areas . . .

Thanks again.  It would make a great 'screen saver' or something like that . . .

- Paul North. 

[BaltACD]

Paul_D_North_Jr

At about 1 min. 45 secs. some yard workers can be seen apparently taking their lives in their hands - or feet - by crossing between cuts that are not all that far apart . . .    I don't think I'd be doing that !

Some of the cars/ cuts seem to be moving faster than the ones just ahead, closing the distance between them.  That doesn't leave much time to throw the switches between them - some sharp work and 'heads-up ball' there !

 . .

- Paul North. 

Remember.....this is a Time Lapse video.  The crossover would not be a close to the moving equipment as the video makes it apper.  Likewise on the difference in closing distances....it is Time Lapse.

[beaulieu]

Paul_D_North_Jr

That's just freakin' awesome - thanks so much for sharing !!!   

About 4 mins. 27 secs. long.  So far I've only viewed it once, but here are some comments:

At about 1 min. there's an ''Oops!'' moment when a large gray car either hung up or had to be stopped, retrieved, and rehumped. 

At about 1 min. 45 secs. some yard workers can be seen apparently taking their lives in their hands - or feet - by crossing between cuts that are not all that far apart . . .    I don't think I'd be doing that !

Some of the cars/ cuts seem to be moving faster than the ones just ahead, closing the distance between them.  That doesn't leave much time to throw the switches between them - some sharp work and 'heads-up ball' there !

This video of the same yard shows the action in real time

Rangierbahnhof Limmattal

 At about the 2:05 minute mark you can see a clock mounted on a light standard, if you look closely you can see the second hand moving around the clock face.

Some of those cuts looked pretty long, too - maybe 6 or 7 cars ?

About 3/4 of the way through there's a view of the yard looking kind of back towards the hump - and what looks like a giant white clock tower almost into the background ?

I saw the 'mules' shuttling back 'empty', but can't quite figure out how they are powered, and did not recognize them moving any cars.  Any more info on that ?

The mules are cable powered, when they are pulled away from the hump the pull causes an arm  to swing out from the mule and on the arm is a small wheel that engages the wheel rim propelling the car along. When the mule is pulled in the opposite direction the arm retracts. The mules serve two purposes, they can speed up a car that leaves the tertiary retarder too slowly, or if the car has already stopped it can tightly bunch the cars for coupling and to make more space on the bowl track.

I hope Carl/ CShaveRR sees this - might give him some ideas.  Better yet, something like this could be done from public property at the NS Allentown Yard hump nearby to me, esp. once the vegetation has fallen for the winter, and/ or is cut in the critical areas . . .

Thanks again.  It would make a great 'screen saver' or something like that . . .

- Paul North. 

 

[CShaveRR]

What? This isn't real-time?

I don't think I'll show this to anyone at work; the wrong people might get ideas!

My computer seems to have a few problems with the video; I couldn't get too far into it. So I didn't see the "mules". As for cut length, we often do longer than that, but have to give the pin-puller a bit of assistance with the slack on those (not a problem--what I hate is when they want some slack for cuts of three or four cars, or even less).

As for cars getting closer to or further away from other cars, that's something we can do. I will try to give the people in the lower towers as much space between cars as possible, which mean that I'll be actually stopping cars for a while in the secondary retarders. If I can't stop them due to following cars, I can still slow them up, and it will look like the next car down would hit them. It doesn't. But I often hear my two favorite words to hear while humping a train: "Thanks, Carl!"

We are also handling cars considerably larger and heavier than those in this video.

Other'n that, this video gives a good idea of what goes on at a hump yard. I don't know that ours would be as spectacular as that, because the "spread" isn't as dramatic on most of our shoves. Just before we got off today, we were humping a shove in which nearly 80 percent of the cars went to just two classification tracks. That isn't as easy to handle as it would seem.

[Norm48327]

 Had to watch it twice. Truly good video.