Robin1966
Member
- Joined
- 27 Sep 2013
- Messages
- 33
I've just seen mention of what seems to have been an experiment with a number of 08 shunters fitted with remote control. I know nothing about this, can anyone tell me more about it? Cheers.
Just to be different, as always, they call them classification yards. It does beg the question though why the technology didn't really seem to work over here.in the USA, where marshalling yards are still a significant thing, they commonly use remote control shunting locos, controlled from the tower.
One thing that springs to mind is that freight operations over there are utterly vast in comparison to our own. I can easily see it being cost effective to develop and deploy the technology on the scale that a Class One US Railroad would be operating compared to the much smaller scale of operation that we had then and now.Just to be different, as always, they call them classification yards. It does beg the question though why the technology didn't really seem to work over here.
A remote control 08 or 09 was used a few years ago at Fowey (Cornwall). The experiment was not a success however as the equipment was unreliable.
Distance and scale. That's what killed the (non container) mixed fright train in this country. With the distances involved marshalling makes no economic sense in GB, especially with the scandal of v.cheap HGV road transport (effectively hugely subsidised given the damage artics do to the roads versus the direct taxation on them). In the US they're moving freight huge distances, often on single track lines, and there's very little passenger traffic to fit around. So long mixed freight trains trundling around, with lengthy stops at yards, makes sense.Just to be different, as always, they call them classification yards. It does beg the question though why the technology didn't really seem to work over here.
Thanks, though I was speaking to the technology of radio control, rather than marshalling/classification yards.Distance and scale...
To a certain extent, they're linked. The lack of marshalling/classification meant no need to deploy on a large scale for shunting (though clearly it was used here) and with the short freight trains, locos in multiple on them can easily be connected by cables whilst the even shorter passenger trains can easily pass a control signal from one end to the other- originally through the lighting circuits.Thanks, though I was speaking to the technology of radio control, rather than marshalling/classification yards.