Method and Apparatus for Vehicle-Based Switch Locking in a Rail Network
AssigneeWestinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation
InventorJeffrey D. Kernwein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A switch locking system and method of an authorized locomotive for safely traversing a switch in a railway including sending a lock command from a computer onboard the authorized locomotive to a switch controller associated with the switch; determining if a lock confirmation from the switch controller is received by the computer onboard the authorized locomotive; and safely traversing the switch upon receipt of the lock confirmation. The switch locking system and method may include sending an unlock command from a computer onboard the authorized locomotive to a switch controller after the train clears the switch.
Claims20
A switch locking method of an authorized locomotive for safely traversing a switch in a railway, the method comprising:
- sending a lock command from a computer onboard the authorized locomotive to a switch controller associated with the switch;
- determining if a lock confirmation from the switch controller is received by the computer onboard the authorized locomotive;
- and
- safely traversing the switch upon receipt of the lock confirmation.
A method of locking a switch by a self-dispatching locomotive, the method comprising:
- authorizing the self-dispatching locomotive from a central dispatcher to traverse a segment of a railway including at least one switch located on the railway;
- issuing a lock command by the self-dispatching locomotive, the lock command issued to a switch controller associated with the at least one switch to lock the at least one switch;
- and
- activating the switch by the switch controller to lock out one or more switch control requests.
A system for controlling movement of a train in a track network, the system comprising:
- a switch, associated with a segment of a railway, and a switch controller, the switch controller coupled to the switch;
- and
- an authorized locomotive including an on-board computer comprising one or more processors, the authorized locomotive having authority to traverse one or more switches, the on-board computer system configured to:
- send a lock command from a computer onboard the authorized locomotive to a switch controller associated with the switch;
- determine if a lock confirmation from the switch controller is received by the computer onboard the authorized locomotive;
- and
- safely traverse the switch upon receipt of the lock confirmation.)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.