Design and operation of intermediate stations

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

We all use rail transport with varying frequency. However, we know practically nothing about how it functions. No, of course, many can boast of knowledge of how the locomotive works and how it moves along the tracks. But in reality, ordinary passengers do not have an understanding of how the railway system itself works and what determines the throughput of entire directions.

If you are interested in the voiced topic, then our article will be very useful to you. It is dedicated to intermediate stations, which in our country are in huge numbers in almost all places where rails are laid and trains run. I would like to immediately note that the importance of these points is underestimated by many. But the very existence of railways is called into question without the coordinated work of intermediate stations. Today we will give all the necessary information on the voiced topic. We will reveal the meaning of the term and talk aboutappointment of a separate point of the railway. In addition, we list the types of intermediate stations and designate their device.

The term and its characteristics

I would like to start our article with an explanation of the term itself, which we will often use today. What is an intermediate station? Without going into technical specifications, we can say that this phrase refers to a point located on the railway network, where trains are serviced, as well as overtaking and passing.

In parallel, intermediate stations provide unloading and loading operations and provide passenger services. They always host many devices and perform numerous technical operations of a different nature.

Sidings, passing points and intermediate stations: a brief description and characteristics

Across the length of the railway tracks, in order to ensure their throughput, there are various points where a number of complex operations are carried out.

People often confuse intermediate stations and sidings. Although in fact there is one most important difference between them, which you just need to remember. According to the technical regulations, loading and unloading operations are not performed at sidings and bypasses. For them, the listed points do not have the necessary equipment and the corresponding entrances have not been built. It is also impossible to carry out passenger operations here due to the lack of railway stations,ticket offices and other facilities provided for by the rules.

But the work of intermediate stations is organized in such a way as to carry out technical, passenger and cargo operations in parallel. To do this, they are located on the railway tracks at certain distances. These intervals are clearly regulated by the rules, which we will talk about in more detail a little later.

Assignment of intermediate stations

These well-equipped points play a very important role in the work of railway transport. After all, the workload and throughput of entire directions are directly dependent on the throughput of individual points along their entire length. To make them as efficient as possible, they are equipped with the number of tracks provided for by the regulations and various devices necessary for operation.

The purpose of the described railway points can be reflected in the form of a long list with a large number of points. During the workflow, the following operations are usually carried out:

• pass trains of all kinds;
• regulation of the movement of stopping trains;
• reception of passenger traffic;
• boarding and disembarking passengers on trains;
• all manipulations related to cargo;
• reception and baggage claim;
• work with groupage trains;
• formation of sending routes;
• weighing freight cars;
• delivery and cleaning of wagons.

It is worth considering that local trains may arrive on some tracks. Similar universalmore and more points every year.

Types of technical operations

As you already understood, many operations are carried out at intermediate stations every day. All of them are divided into several types, most often they are combined into three broad groups:

1. Technical. This includes all work on the reception and departure of trains, as well as all maneuvers associated with the supply and cleaning of wagons. These operations are the most frequent and are performed several times a day.
2. Cargo (commercial). All operations related to cargo fall under this category. This list includes loading and unloading operations, paperwork, making and receiving payments, storing goods and issuing them.
3. Passenger. This group is the largest. This includes receiving passengers, providing them with appropriate conditions, storing mail and luggage, selling tickets and other similar operations.

All the above works are performed qualitatively in the presence of certain devices. They are also an integral part of intermediate railway stations.

Technical means: description

Intermediate railway stations are equipped according to strict regulations, otherwise they will not be able to fully implement all the prescribed functions. If we consider the main characteristics, then the stations should have a branched track development. This is necessary in order to increase throughput.ability in a certain direction. For this purpose, not only the main paths are laid, but also dead-end branches, loading and unloading, exhaust and receiving and departure. The result is a whole complex that allows you to carry out several types of operations simultaneously.

Since intermediate stations serve the passenger contingent, they are required to have all the associated infrastructure. It includes station buildings, boarding platforms, left-luggage offices, crossings, service and residential premises. Thanks to all these facilities, the stations become very convenient points for transferring to another line or boarding your own train.

To carry out cargo operations, stations are equipped with special mechanisms and platforms where such work can be carried out without reducing the throughput of the point.

Also, each station must have switch posts, various communication devices, a modern water supply and lighting system.

Judging by the above nuances, it becomes clear that not only the operation of intermediate points is clearly regulated, but also their design and construction is subject to the rules prescribed in the technical documentation.

Regulation of work of intermediate points

The design of intermediate stations is carried out in accordance with technical and administrative acts and technological maps. In the future, these same documents will regulate the entire work of the new point.

To date, on all existing railway tracks, stations of the type described by us are located through equalintervals of twenty meters. On newly laid lines, this distance is increased. Stations are being built in about sixty meters.

Some stations are located near large industrial facilities, so the work of access roads is synchronized in such a way as to receive a passenger flow and unload and load the company's products or materials necessary for its operation.

Technical and administrative acts regulate all issues related to the reception and maintenance of trains. Technological maps contain more detailed recommendations for the operation of the intermediate station. It often indicates the time standards allotted for a particular operation, the schedules for the processing of wagons and the intervals through which trains must be sent.

It is interesting that in these documents you can even find information on the arrangement of intermediate stations. For example, a typical station building should not be less than one hundred and fifty square meters. Moreover, its maximum dimensions are also limited, the top bar is four hundred squares.

Here you can also find out that at a regular station the number of tracks varies from two to four. Intermediate stations in Moscow and the Moscow region have a high throughput due to four receiving and departing tracks. Their number is directly dependent on the region where the item is located.

Station types

Intermediate stations are divided into several types, based on different characteristics. For example, onthe typology can be affected by the number of incoming and outgoing routes, the placement of loading devices, or the location of access roads.

However, most often there are three types of intermediate stations. They are classified according to the location of the receiving-departure routes. Many factors influence this. First of all, builders evaluate the terrain, the planned freight and passenger traffic in the direction and the nature of the work of the future station. And already on the basis of all the conclusions made, they begin to build paths of one type or another. We repeat that there can be only three of them:

• longitudinal;
• semi-longitudinal;
• transverse.

For example, in conditions with difficult weather conditions and topography, points with a transverse arrangement of tracks are arranged. This reduces the amount of work carried out several times and speeds up construction. Similar intermediate stations, for example, were built at BAM.

To make it easier for readers to understand the structure of the items we describe according to the typology, we will give a brief overview and try to explain in simple language the schemes of work in these items.

Longitudinal device

The work is carried out according to four main schemes. According to the first, the receiving-departure tracks are located parallel to the main track on each side of it. In another option, they can be placed on one side of the main track, and the third type involves the placement of freight and exhaust tracks away from the main passenger traffic on the back side of the station.

Depending on the available schemes, the work of the station is lined up. Its employees can cross trains, overtake them and perform these operations simultaneously. To do this, even and odd trains are taken on different tracks, and depending on the traffic pattern, one is passed forward or transferred along the arrow to another branch.

The throughput of stations where the receiving-departure tracks are arranged according to the longitudinal type is much higher than that of other options. However, during the construction of such points, large sums of money are spent and large-scale earthworks are required. In addition, such arrangement is often impossible in certain areas due to the peculiarities of the terrain.

Semi-longitudinal arrangement scheme

Points of this type have shorter maneuvering areas. Compositions do not have the ability to directly switch from one main direction to another. All manipulations are performed on a small section of the main tracks located on the back of the main station building.

Such a scheme significantly limits the throughput of the checkpoint. All work is carried out in stages, since it is almost impossible to simultaneously carry out all the manipulations with trains.

Despite the fact that this type of device is slightly inferior to the previous one, there are still quite comfortable conditions for the reception and departure of passengers, their movement and placement of trucks. At these points, simultaneous reception of trains going in opposite directions is possible.

Cross diagramfacilities

Several decades ago, this device was considered the most convenient and cost-effective. Freight and passenger tracks were located next to the station and each other. This significantly reduced the cost of building an intermediate point and reduced the time for loading and unloading trains. As a result, it was convenient for absolutely all interested parties: employees, senders and recipients of goods, and, first of all, government agencies financing the construction of the station.

But over time, obvious shortcomings of such a device were revealed. With the slightest increase in cargo traffic, all work has to be moved to a separate site. As a result, passengers are forced to cross several tracks while boarding the train, and in doing so they interfere with the loading operations being carried out. Naturally, there is no need to talk about security in this case.

In recent years, the transverse type of stations has been built in a slightly different way. Freight entrances are located away from the main tracks and behind the station building. This allows trains for different purposes not to intersect, and workers can go about their direct duties without worrying about the safety of passengers.

Double-track and single-track lines: arrangement

Modern railway tracks are mostly double-track. Therefore, it is possible to equip all three types of intermediate stations on them. At the same time, it is important to ensure the isolation of maneuvering work from the rest, and cargodevices are located away from the main passenger flow.

If there is a choice, preference on double-track tracks is always given to the longitudinal arrangement. Its benefits are obvious:

• high capacity of railway points;
• wide opportunities for maneuvering and passing trains;
• better conditions for passengers.

It is interesting that in recent years, reconstruction of transverse types of stations has been actively carried out. If possible, they are converted into longitudinal or semi-longitudinal, as this type is more in demand and convenient.

Peculiarities of passenger facilities at stations

In previous sections, we have already mentioned that the passenger complex should include a station, platforms and covered walkways. However, they can also be open. This is not prohibited by the rules of arrangement.

If necessary, the station building can be combined with technical rooms and various offices. The location of the building relative to the tracks is clearly regulated by the rules of construction. For example, a station cannot be built closer than twenty meters from the main route of intermediate stations. If high-speed trains are launched in the direction, then this distance should increase to twenty-five meters. However, the maximum limit must not exceed fifty meters.

Platforms intended for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers cannot exceed two hundred millimeters, and their length must correspond to the maximum possible length of the passenger train. However, each platformIt is built in such a way that, if necessary, it can be increased to eight hundred meters. If we are talking about platforms serving suburban trains, then they are designed to increase up to five hundred meters.

The width of such structures also meets the standards. It cannot be less than six meters. Transitions, pavilions and exits located around the station also have their own parameters.

A few words about tickets

Tickets at intermediate stations are sold at the box office, but the sales scheme has some peculiarities. For example, on some routes, tickets appear in the public domain only after the train has already left the starting point of the route.

In other cases, you can purchase tickets at the ticket offices of intermediate stations three days before the intended trip.