Control system for a railway convoy, particularly for the transport of goods

A control system for a railway convoy for transport of goods, comprising a plurality of wagons, a master locomotive placed at a head of the railway convoy and at least one slave locomotive distributed in the railway convoy;

• the railway convoy comprising a brake pipe for service and emergency pneumatic braking of said railway convoy, the brake pipe extending along the entire railway convoy;
• wherein:
• the master locomotive is arranged to control a pressure in the brake pipe and to send traction and/or braking commands to said at least one slave locomotive by means of a radio technology or wired technology communication channel,
• the at least one slave locomotive comprises a transceiver means arranged to receive the traction and/or braking commands sent by the master locomotive through the communication channel, said transceiver means being further arranged to re-transmit, by means of a communication means internal to said at least one slave locomotive, the traction and/or braking commands to a traction control unit and to a brake control unit of said at least one slave locomotive in order to control the pressure in the brake pipe;
• the brake control unit being arranged to control the pressure in the brake pipe by acting on a first pneumatic solenoid valve arranged to increase the pressure in a pilot chamber of a relay valve and on a second pneumatic solenoid valve arranged to reduce pressure in the pilot chamber of said relay valve;
• an inlet of said relay valve being arranged to be supplied by a main pipe and an outlet of said relay valve being arranged to be connected to said brake pipe;
• and
• the control system for a railway convoy being characterized in that it includes a safety unit associated with said brake control unit, said safety unit being arranged to prevent the relay valve from supplying the brake pipe when at least one malfunction condition of the control system for a railway convoy occurs,
• wherein the safety unit is developed according to a safety integrity level higher than the safety integrity level of the associated brake control unit.