RAILWAYS

small and medium stations,

container transport

Igor Gisterek M.Sc.

Small stations

Duties of a small station:

• Crossing and overtaking of trains

• Passengers handling (+luggage, parcels)

• Shunting cars

• Loading, unloading and storage of deliveries

• In some cases – rolling stock maintenance

Basic equipment

• Main, subsidiary and side tracks

• Station building

• Passenger platforms

• Passenger footbridges or tunnels, if

required

• Storages, loading ramps and surfaces

• Signalling and control devices

Track arrangements

On double track lines trains arrive and depart

using in most cases main line tracks

On single track lines, main line track and one

subsidiary track are used

At small stations where overtaking of trains is

planned, two subsidiary tracks are needed

Number of subsidiary tracks for freight trains

depends on the volume of freight

Length of loading tracks depends both on

freight volume and length of loading front

For freight cars shunting a dead end track

equipped with a buffer stop is reqiured. Its
length should exceed ½ length of a freight
train

With small traffic, shunting can be done on

main line track

A typical track layout of a small station. Following elements
are depicted: station building, platform, signals and signalling
tower, turnouts and cargo handling facilities. Each signal,
turnout and other traffic control device is given an individual
number or description.

A view of a small station. This station on a narrow gauge single track line
is dedicated to passenger traffic, hence the quite large number of
platforms and no cargo bays or other equpiment. Note the coordination
of train and bus timetables. Passengers can easily change mode of
transportation.

This tiny station was built
in a very limited space
between a mountain
slope and a deep river
gorge. Main parts of this
station are spread apart:
passenger platforms are
visible right ahead, cargo

visible right ahead, cargo
warehouse is to the left
and a depot is hidden
behind the trees on the
other bank of the river.

A more complex track layout. Typical one-sided station with
platforms on the main line tracks, and freight subsidiary
tracks to the right. Signs and signals of various kinds can be
seen here.

Station layout

• Transversal

passenger and freight tracks are parallel

• Longitudinal

station is stretched along the main line

• Mixed

in some situations special layouts are needed

Every track layout should enable connections

between main line tracks and all station
facilities, also in case of double track main
line switching between tracks is needed

These illustrations depict typical layouts of small size stations.
From a track length, operation and compactness point of
view, all of these are optimal in one way or another.

Medium size stations

• Larger and more complex than small ones
• In most cases they origin from small st.

• In most cases they origin from small st.
• Main difference between small and

medium stations is a more strict track
specialisation: in small stations tracks are
universal and multifunctional, in medium
ones they play only one role

Modern cargo handling - containers

• One of the means of multimodal transport

• Extremely effective, cost- and labor

reducing

• Fitting both in road and rail loading gauge

• Multiple types and sizes of containers: for

small items, liquids, refrigerators,…

Many years ago handling of any cargo was done manually.
While this method was very time and labor consuming, more
effective ways were invented. One of the most popular in
carrying goods in closed containers of various lengths (20 or
40 ft.) and around 20 kinds.

In US, due to the higher loading gauge, carrying of two levels
of containers on special low floor cars is possible. Such
arrangement is called ‘double stack’.

Container terminals

• Can be found as a part of station in or

near to medium and large towns

• Dedicated sea ports have been created

• If further developed, use of containers can

relieve roads from congestion regardless if
loading only car bodies or whole trucks

In most cases the first stage is a

maritime container terminal

where goods are transshipped between
ships and rail or ships and trucks, then
goods cover a longer distace with a mean

goods cover a longer distace with a mean
of land transport to the

inland container terminal

where they are moved from rail to trucks
and head for the recipient.

A ship loaded with containers has just arrived. Now the high-
speed gantry cranes will unload and load the containers in
proper order to keep the ship in balance. The containers will
be moved then by trucks to the storage facility and unloaded
by other cranes.

A container terminal combined with marshalling yard. Gantry
cranes of at least two types are visible, assisted by specially
modified fork lifts. With such arrangement, each part of the
storage is within the reach of a crane.

When not whole storage facility surface is within the reach of
gantry cranes, container forklifts (a.k.a. container handlers, c.
transporters, c. handling forklifts) become useful.

These machines are built
for various container sizes
and weights (e.g. empty
containers only) and are
more universal than
gantry cranes as they can
rotate a lifted item. Only
trackless gantry cranes

trackless gantry cranes
can do the same trick, yet
in terminals where tracks,
roads and embankments
are parallel, this ability is
hardly ever needed.

Trackless, small gantry cranes can stack containers up to three
layers, but they are unable to load a train (no side access or
reach is possible)

Advantages and disadvantages

+ speed of operations and transport is as high as

possible

+ goods are secured from outside conditions
+ very high capacity and effectiveness of terminals
- in some cases additional change of transport

mode is needed

- many containers return empty