US 12,752,826 B2 · Systems and methods for efficiently switching railcars in a railroad yard

Abstract

A method for switching railcars at a railroad yard includes accessing a list of selected railcars for an outgoing train. The method further includes generating a plurality of train consists that each comply with a set of train rules. The method further includes displaying indications of the generated train consists and their associated number of railyard switch moves on an electronic display. The method further includes receiving a user selection of a desired train consist from the plurality of displayed train consists. The method further includes generating a plurality of switch lists according to the desired train consist and a current inventory of railcars in the railyard. The switch lists include instructions about how to form the desired train consist in the railyard. The method further includes displaying the plurality of switch lists on the electronic display.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system for identifying switch moves to route cuts to a desired consist, comprising:

one or more memory units configured to store a plurality of rules and a current inventory of railcars in a railyard;
and
one or more processors operably coupled to the one or more memory units and configured to:
identify a train symbol to build and the railcars associated with the train symbol located in a railyard;
construct, via a switch list generator, an option tree of states representing potential railcar moves, until an optimal desired end state is achieved;
sort, via one or more processors, a plurality of potential railcar moves to build an optimized consist;
and
identify, from the option tree of states sorting results, a listing of end states that do not violate the one or more rules.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for efficiently switching railcars in a railroad yard

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for efficiently switching railcars in a railroad yard

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20