Rail car terminal facility staging

Apparatus for use in a system for transporting bulk goods comprising a plurality of rail cars arranged to be transported on a rail network to a rail car handling terminal, each rail car having at least one Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag including data identifying the rail car;

• the handling terminal comprising a plurality of rail track spur lines each for receiving one or more of said plurality of rail cars and a center control hub, the apparatus comprising:
• a plurality of trackside-mounted scanning stations each for mounting adjacent to a respective one of the spur lines and each including a control system;
• a wide area point-to-point wireless communications network communicating with each of said scanning stations;
• each scanning station comprising a self-contained, weatherproof unit;
• each scanning station being self-powered utilizing solar energy or other sources so as not to require connection to an exterior power supply;
• each scanning station comprising a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader having an antenna for powering and reading the RFID tag of an adjacent one of said plurality of rail cars so as to provide rail car data from the RFID tag to the control system;
• each scanning station having mounted thereon two radar proximity detectors mounted on the unit so that each is responsive to presence of the adjacent one of said plurality of rail cars at a predetermined distance from the detector;
• each of the two radar proximity detectors being mounted on the scanning station so that each is directed longitudinally along the track in a respective one of two directions of travel of the rail cars along the track so as to determine the presence of the adjacent one of said plurality of rail cars moving along the track when approaching from the respective direction;
• the two radar proximity detectors and the control system being arranged so as to determine the direction of travel of the adjacent one of said plurality of rail cars along the track;
• said RFID reader having a quiescent mode in which power from the antenna is turned off from which mode the reader can be activated;
• said radar proximity detectors being always-on so as to detect the presence of the adjacent one of said plurality of rail cars and being arranged to activate the reader from the quiescent mode on detection of the adjacent one of said plurality of rail cars;
• said RFID reader being arranged to revert to the quiescent mode after reading the RFID tag of the adjacent one of said plurality of rail cars.