EP3126206B1 - Multi-part railway car having variable gauge wheelsets - Google Patents

Description

This invention relates to a railroad car, primarily for the transportation of goods, but can also be designed as a passenger car. As a special feature, it is made up of three parts or consists of even more wagon parts, so it offers three or more loading areas, and it has lane change wheel sets for driving on rail networks of different gauges.

The trade in goods between Asia and Europe has grown enormously in recent years. The majority of the goods are transported by ship. Here, the tonnage hardly plays a role, because the ton-kilometer is very cheap today and is often almost modest in relation to the price of goods. The disadvantage of ship transportation is the transportation time. The passage from the port of Shanghai to Rotterdam, for example, takes about 40 days. The fast transport takes place via air freight. In principle, however, this is considerably more expensive than transport by ship and also much more expensive than transport by land.

A rail transport has many advantages over the ship or plane, because it is a middle thing: Much faster than by ship, but slower than by plane, the tonnage is more expensive than by ship, but much cheaper than by air freight. With a record time of only 9 days between Brest on the Polish-Belarusian border and Erenhot on the Mongolian-Chinese border, the Swiss railway service provider Interrail AG has pioneering standards for the Rail transport set on the broad gauge route between Europe and China. Overall, this route measures more than 8000 km and a record speed of 900 km per day could be achieved. 41 high-cube 40 'containers were transported by train, the loading of which consisted mainly of heavy steel armor. For 2014, 45 newly booked trains for the Chengdu (CN) - Lodz (PL) route will be realized. There is a clear demand for reliable transportation services that are cheaper than air freight and faster than ocean freight.

The balance of container flows in both directions is seen as a crucial component in the realization of sustainable Eurasian rail products, because container train traffic can only be sustainable and economically effective if they ensure the concentricity of the containers, i.e. balanced traffic in both directions. Until now, traffic towards the Far East was seen primarily as bringing containers back to the East. With the expansion of hubs at the western Chinese border stations, traffic to the east could be intensified and thereby ensure cost-effective return and return use of containers and wagons. The "Ostwind" / "Westwind" container train pair between Terminal Berlin Grossbeeren and the Commonwealth of Independent States CIS is a successful example of east-west traffic in both directions.

1. 1. Das Schienennetz in Europa, Russland und China arbeitet mit unterschiedlichen Spurbreiten. Die Schienen in China, Deutschland und Polen weisen eine Spurbreite von 1435mm auf, jene von Russland, Kasachstan, Weissrussland und der Mongolei von 1520mm.
2. 2. Bisher werden wegen der verschiedenen Spurbreiten die Frachten umgeladen, was über die Gesamtstrecke zweimal erfolgen muss, da die Länder mit grösserer Spurbreite zwischen Start und Ziel liegen. Der Warenumschlag kostet Zeit und Geld und ist eine logistische Herausforderung.
3. 3. Weil der Gütertransport durch 6 Länder führt, gibt es zolltechnische Probleme zu lösen, mit entsprechenden Wagenstillstandzeiten an den Grenzen. Die künftige Anwendung eines Frachtbriefes CIM/SMGS, welcher die Schienengütertransporte mit einem Frachtdokument zwischen Europa, Russland und Asien ermöglichen wird, kann die Transportleistung markant gesteigert werden.
4. 4. Sobald ein Zug nicht fährt, müssen die Transitgüter bewacht werden.

In order to organize efficient rail transport over large distances between Europe and Asia and especially in China, there are the following technical challenges:

1. 1. The rail network in Europe, Russia and China works with different track widths. The rails in China, Germany and Poland have a track width of 1435mm, those of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Mongolia of 1520mm.
2. 2. Up to now, because of the different track widths, the loads have been reloaded, which has to be done twice over the entire route, since the countries with larger track widths are between the start and the destination. Handling goods takes time and money and is a logistical challenge.
3. 3. Because the transport of goods goes through 6 countries, there are technical problems to be solved, with corresponding wagon downtimes at the borders. The future Using a CIM / SMGS consignment note, which will enable rail freight transportation with a freight document between Europe, Russia and Asia, the transport performance can be increased significantly.
4. 4. As soon as a train does not run, the transit goods must be guarded.

The transport performance of the Russian railways has increased considerably in recent years, from 900 km / day in 2011 to 1400 km / day in 2012 and expected 1500 km / day in 2015. The transport time from the western border to Irkutsk could be from 11 days to 5 days be shortened. The route branches off to the northern Chinese provinces on this route. Train outputs of up to 6,000 tons with a transport duration of 8 days are possible on these routes. The rail capacities are available, so that up to 500,000 additional standard containers could be moved on the Europe-China route. The fact that the Russian Railways RZD is planning a broad-gauge line of another 432 km, which is to extend through Slovakia to Vienna, is a good example of such a project. Furthermore, 45ft swap containers (Mega Swap Box) with internal dimensions of 3.00m high, 2.48m wide and 13.65m long are currently being introduced, which are accessible from 3 sides and can therefore be optimally loaded. These containers can be stacked at a standard height of 1.50m.

In order to improve the transport performance in every respect, that is, to be able to transport more containers per time on a route, improved rolling stock is also required, which takes all boundary conditions into account. For example, the car material must be equipped with wheel sets of 1435mm and / or lane change wheel sets according to UIC leaflet 510-4 for the change from 1435mm to 1520mm and back. The braking devices must be equipped with KE 483 and / or MHZ control valves that comply with the RZD standard. The couplings must be equipped with an automatic central buffer coupling (AK) according to UIC522-1, especially with the type Transpact AK 69e and / or C-AKv, for coupling with SA-3 (flap) couplings according to the Russian standard, because otherwise Standard screw couplings inevitably lead to material breakages from a tensile weight of 2,500 tons. In a special design, the railway wagons are also intended to enable the transportation of semi-trailers. It should be borne in mind that only about 5 to 10% of these semi-trailers in Europe can be moved with cranes.

Another important point is the realizable train length and the necessary rolling stock. It has long been proven that trains that are much longer than those previously used on the Europe-Asia route are technically feasible. Train lengths of up to 4 km are common for ore transports in South Africa, with total weights of up to 41,000 tons. Here it may be that part of the train has already overcome a crest and the rear half still has to be pulled up. To do this, the prime movers used throughout the entire composition have to pull or push at the same time, while others brake. The fine control is carried out via a central computer, which takes into account all parameters such as the current location of the train on the route profile and the current driving speed. Such train lengths and loads are possible. On June 21, 2001, a freight train operated by BHP Billiton Iron Ore, with a length of 7,353 meters, drove the 275 km long route from the Newman ore mine to Port Hedland in western Australia. This freight train consisted of 682 wagons and 8 locomotives. The total weight of the train was 99,732 tons. This made it not only the longest, but also the heaviest train that has ever run on a rail track, and it has been used to prove what is possible on the rail.

In view of these facts and circumstances, it is the object of the present invention to provide a railway wagon as rolling stock, which in particular allows longer train compositions to be run on the Europe-Asia route, automatic track changes and more containers per wagon with less weight. In a special variant, particularly fast and safe loading of semitrailers (semitrailers of semitrailer vehicles) is to be made possible using a crane.

Railway wagons with biaxial bogies, which are equipped with interchangeable wheel sets for automatic lane change, are e.g. B. by the DE 196 25 031 C1 known.

This object is achieved by a railroad car with the features of claim 1.

Figur 1:

Den dreiteiligen Wagen in einer Seitenansicht für den Semitrailer-Transport und Containertransport

Figur 2:

Den dreiteiligen Wagen in einer Draufsicht;

Figur 3:

Eine automatische Kupplung für die Endseiten des dreiteiligen Wagens.

In the figures, these railroad cars for Europe-Asia traffic are presented and described using these drawings, and their construction and function is explained.
It shows:

Figure 1:

The three-part wagon in a side view for semi-trailer transport and container transport

Figure 2:

The three-part car in a top view;

Figure 3:

An automatic coupling for the ends of the three-part car.

The Figure 1 shows the three-part railway carriage and its special construction. It has three loading areas 1, 2 and 3 and four bogies 4 to 7, each with two axles and two wheels per axle. On the inner bogies 5 and 6, two loading areas are pivotally connected to each other and non-positively connected. On the first bogie 5 of the two inner bogies 5, 6, the first loading area 1 is connected in a hinged manner to the second, middle loading area 2, and on the second inner bogie 6, the other end of the middle loading area 2 is connected to the third loading area 3. These hinges allow the connected loading areas 1-3 to be pivoted about a vertically running pivot axis, namely by a horizontal angle of up to 15 degrees. At the same time, horizontally running swivel axes are realized on both sides of the vertically running swivel axes, which allow swiveling of the connected loading areas 1-3 about this horizontal axis so that crests and depressions can be driven on. This means that such a three-part wagon can travel around curves with a minimum curve radius of 150 m in a train set, and can drive a minimum curve radius of approx. 85 meters as a single wagon and drive over all occurring crests and valleys. The three-part wagon thus offers a loading capacity of three 45ft standard swap bodies, such as on the loading area 1 using the example of such a container 8 is shown. The construction of such containers is in EP 0 829 408 A1 disclosed. According to this, these 45ft standard swap bodies are standardized to internal dimensions of 3m high, 2.48m wide and 13.65m long. In addition, they can be loaded from three sides and can be open at the top. These load carriers can be stacked at a standard height of 1.50m. As a variant, instead of the three 45ft standard containers, two 20ft standard containers can be placed on each loading area 1, 2 and 3. This corresponds to an overall capacity expansion of 50% compared to the conventional merely two-part cars, which are basically constructed the same way.

The bogies 4 to 7 are all equipped with a running gear with an interchangeable wheel set, each with four wheels per bogie. It was already proven a few years ago that with four freight wagons equipped with such interchangeable wheel sets, a total mileage of over 400,000 km with a total of 580 lane changes from 1435mm up to 1535mm and vice versa was successfully completed. Such bogies with interchangeable wheel sets are therefore proven and ready for use and known in the prior art and are about EP 0 873 930 A1 or DE 44 05 861 A1 forth. The three-part car shown here has a loading height of 1100mm and a length of everything from buffer to buffer of 50,460mm. The three loading areas 1,2,3 measure 15,765mm in length.

In Figure 2 this three-part car is shown in a view from above. One can see the hinges 9 and 10, which form the inner connections of the three loading areas 1, 2, 3. The latter are made extremely strong and solid and thus form practically non-detachable connections. This ensures that the tractive force from wagon part to wagon part is sufficiently large and thus also the pivoting of the coupled wagon parts in all directions. The entire carriage construction is made of a lightweight, high-strength, loose-flake fine-grain structural steel, which results in a tare weight of approx. 45 tons. Compared to conventionally built steel, as used for the well-known two-part wagons, a payload of 45 tonnes is achieved for each individual wagon part, and thus a total payload of 135 tonnes per three-part wagon. It goes without saying that not only three-part, but also four or even five-part carriages can be realized based on the basic construction principle. Cars are advantageously built from an odd number of loading areas. This is related to the braking device. A control valve is normally necessary for a maximum of 4 wheel sets for 2 wheels. With an odd number of loading areas, there are certain cost savings, because according to the number of loading areas or wagon parts, as many control valves are required as specified here: • with 3 car parts: 2 control valves required • with 4 car parts: 3 control valves required • with 5 car parts: 3 control valves required • with 6 car parts: 4 control valves required • with 7 car parts: 4 control valves required and so on.

This three-part car is equipped with braking devices with a control valve (eg with KE 483) according to the UIC and RZD standards. The end clutches C-GAB-couplings (= C ompact A utomaticsearch K upplung ereinfacht v), which have the Willison profile of the Russian SA3 couplings, and the with European screw coupling, the SA-3 and the previous UIC Center coupling can be coupled without an adapter. These couplings at the ends therefore allow a car to be coupled and uncoupled quickly and thus to be quickly integrated into a train composition, regardless of its provenance - whether European, Russian or Chinese.

In Figure 3 such an automatic coupling is shown for the end sides of the multi-part carriage, namely such a TRANSPACT C-AKv coupling. It is installed with its pull and push device 11 in an installation space 12 on the chassis of the car. On the side walls 13, 14 of this installation space 12 there are pressure stops 15 and pull stops 16, between the stops of which the pulling and pushing device 11 can move back and forth. A support device 17 follows at the end opening of the installation space. The entire coupling 18 is then articulated on the pulling and pushing device 11 by means of a stabilizing joint 19. The coupling elements comprise a centering horn 20, a large tooth 21 with a latch 22 and a small tooth 23, and the rigidization pocket 27. Below these elements for the automatic coupling, which functions in such a way that the latch 22 automatically extends when the small tooth 23 is acted upon and couples, there is still a mixed train coupling 24 for the coupling of conventional cars, which is operated with the bolt actuation 28. To the clutch also includes the HL air line 25. With this coupling, the distance D from the front edge of the buffer plate to the dome level is 60mm.

If temperature-controlled containers are also to be transported by train, the following must be taken into account. Such containers are currently equipped with a heating or cooling unit, which includes an 800 liter diesel tank. For example, if a train transports 102 such containers, 102 x 800 liters = 81,600 liters of diesel are only carried for cooling or heating. To drive the heating and cooling units, however, electrical energy would be better used if the route traveled is electrified. For this purpose, the carriages can be equipped from front to back with a bendable electrical train busbar for connecting the electrical cooling / heating units of temperature-controlled containers for the transport of temperature-sensitive goods. The train busbars of the individual carriages can then be connected to an electrical cable that runs all the way to the locomotive in order to supply all carriages with electrical energy from one location. The tracks form the return conductor to this single-pole train busbar.

A train composition with such three- or multi-part wagons then shows the following key data for their transport capacity for the traffic from Europe to Asia and back: 28 wagons with 168 TEU 20ft containers can be transported on a single train on the Russian RZD rail network, or 84 pieces of 40ft containers. From Europe to the Belarusian border (Federal Republic of Germany and Poland) the tonnage is limited to 14 wagons with 84 pieces of 20ft containers. At the border with Belarus, two such train compositions can then be coupled together, i.e. two 14 cars can be coupled together to form a train length of 28 cars. So if you drive two trains of 14 cars to the Belarusian border and then connect them to a single train with 28 cars for the crossing of Belarus and Russia, the following tonnages can be moved or transport services can be provided with optimal use of time: 3 trains per Day and direction, from Europe to China, with 28 wagons each and 168 TEU 20ft containers on it, results in 504 TEU 20ft containers per day, and 3,528 containers per week, and in 35 days you get 17,640 TEU 20ft- Container. The train duration is 8 days. In order to maintain a running train circulation with 3 trains per day, you need 1,344 such three-part cars. Compared to the 8 days, the transport by ship takes a total of approx. 35 days, in which case the containers still have to be reloaded and brought to the destination inland. In contrast, the railways can in principle bring the containers closer to their destinations.

Claims (9)

1. Railway wagon with bogies each having at least two axles, which bogies (4, 5, 6, 7) each have a running gear with an interchangeable track wheel set for automatic track change when driving over from one track standard to another, and a coupling (18) at each of the two ends of the railway wagon, characterized in that the railway wagon has a plurality of wagon chassis each having a loading surface, and in that it is designed with at least three parts, wherein it consists of at least three chassis and loading surfaces (1, 2, 3) which are hingedly connected to form a continuous composition, wherein the composition is supported by a respective bogie (4, 7) at the train ends and by a respective bogie (5, 6) at the hinged connecting points between the loading surfaces (1-3).
2. Railway wagon according to claim 1, characterized in that it is constructed in three parts, consisting of three chassis and loading surfaces (1, 2, 3) which are connected in a hinged manner to form a continuous composition, wherein the composition is supported by a bogie (4, 7) at each of the train ends and by a bogie (5, 6) at each of the hinged connecting points between the loading surfaces (1-3), which bogies (4,5,6,7) are each supported with an interchangeable wheel set for automatic lane change when passing from one lane standard to another, namely from the European standard track width (1435mm) to the Russian standard track width (1520mm) and the Chinese standard track width (1435mm) and vice versa, and that the end couplings (18) are C-AKv couplings (= Compact Automatic Coupling simplified), and the braking devices are equipped with a control valve (z. B. KE 483) according to UIC and RZD standards.
3. Railway wagon according to claim 1, characterized in that it is constructed in three parts and or in several parts, consisting of three chassis and loading surfaces (1, 2, 3) which are connected in a hinged manner to form a continuous composition, whereby the composition is supported by a bogie (4,7) at the train ends and one bogie (5, 6) each at the hinged connection points between the loading surfaces (1-3), which bogies (4, 5, 6, 7) each have a running gear with interchangeable track wheel set for automatic track change when passing from one track standard to another, namely from the European standard track width (1435mm) to the Russian standard track width (1520mm) and the Chinese standard track width (1435mm) and vice versa, and that the end couplings (18) are automatic AK69 couplings with side buffers, which couplings (18) and side buffers are compatible with the European, of the Russian SA3 coupling and the Chinese coupling according to US standards, and that the car parts (1,2,3) for the internal connections have Russian centre buffers SA3, so that train lengths of up to 1500m can be coupled together.
4. Railway wagon according to claim 1, characterized in that it is constructed in four parts, i.e. with four chassis and four loading surfaces (1,2,3,...) connected by five bogies (4,5,6,7,...) to form a continuous composition.
5. Railway wagon according to claim 1, characterized in that it is constructed in five parts, i.e. with five chassis and loading surfaces (1, 2, 3, ...) which are connected to six bogies (4, 5, 6, 7, ...) to form a continuous composition.
6. Railway wagon according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the dead weight of the individual wagon parts (1, 2, 3) is reduced by lightweight construction with high-strength fine-grained structural steel in such a way that the payload of each wagon part reaches 45 tons.
7. Railway wagon according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the loading area (1, 2, 3) of each wagon part is constructed so long that it can be loaded with one 45ft standard container or two 20ft standard containers placed one behind the other.
8. Railway wagon according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the loading area (1, 2, 3) of at least one part of a wagon on its one bogie (4, 5, 6, 7) can be pivoted horizontally by at least 15° and in the pivoted-out position can be lowered vertically to the floor next to the wagon so that it can be driven on backwards with a trailer.
9. Railway wagon according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is equipped from front to rear with a flexible electric train bus bar for connecting the electric cooling/heating units of temperature-controlled containers for transporting temperature-sensitive goods.

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