Railcars Sequencing Turntables

RST meets with FRA

Fred Wertz — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:11:02 -0700

Arthur J. Erdman, Inspector - Operating Practices
Federal Railroad Administration
Region 1
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sequencing Turntable Meeting

On Monday January 10, 2005, a meeting was held in Linden, NJ with a group developing a new technology for distribution of railroad freight equipment in industrial areas. This device, called the Railcar Sequencing Turntable, will allow for more efficient use of limited land space in addition to expediting delivery of freight carrying railcars to their designated tracks.
The device will permit a train to be delivered and placed on the turntable. Tracks will radiate from the turntable to serve industrial customers. Instead of using classification or staging yard tracks to sort out cars for delivery, an on track Car Mover will be used to deliver the car or cars to their assigned track. In reviewing the operation of this device, I suggested that a number of safety issues be considered to protect employees working on or near the Sequencing Turntable. Among these issues:

- Provision for Blue Signal Protection on tracks accessed from the turntable.
- A method should be devised to indicate when a track is properly lined up and movement on or off the turntable is permitted.
- A system of locking controls of the turntable to protect employees repairing or maintaining the turntable.
- Ensuring the rails mounted on the turntable are secured to prevent the rails being "drawn" by road locomotives when pulling a tonnage train on or off the turntable.

A technical conversation was conducted with the engineers involved in the design of the turntable about other aspects of its operation.
This device is a creative solution to the problem of providing rail freight service to areas of limited land use. Several locations in the Northeast are being proposed to install this device, which if successful, can provide a needed service to industry and shippers particularly in major population areas.

RST meets with Senator Menendez

Fred Wertz — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:12:38 -0700

The Railcars Sequencing Turntable is an expensive project. There will need to be a combination of private and government funding at various stages of the project. RST is actively seeking not only funds, but also approval from government officials such as Senator Menendez. This also gives RST a chance to explain the benefits of their novel approach to an age old problem.

25% tax credit on investments in rail infrastructure

Fred Wertz — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:51:52 -0700

The bill currently before House of Representatives is the Freight Rail Infrustructure Capacity Expanasion Act of 2007 (H.R. 2116). This bill is sponsered by representatives Corrine Brown and Kendrick Meek of Florida, Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Kevin Brady of Texas. The Senate has proposed a companion bill (S. 1125). The goal of these bills is to infuse capital into the railway system in order to increase capacity. There is a clear need to increase railroad traffic over the next 10 years as shipments of consumer goods, coal, and other freight continues to rise. It also aims to reduce truck traffic by moving as much freight as possible by rail.

The bill's proposed tax credit also applies to tunnels, bridges, freight yards, terminals, and energy efficient locomotives. As the government looks for cleaner methods of shipping goods, freight transport by railway as opposed to truck becomes more attractive.

RST unveils their new web site

Kepler Gelotte — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:51:25 -0700

The idea for the Railcars Sequencing Turntable has been in progress for many years now. It has recently gained steam with respected firms like Modjeski and Masters, Ansaldo Signal, and others backing the the idea as a credible solution to a nagging problem. The problem is that of long delays of freight cars in yards. Breaking apart long freight consists into the indiviual shipping units according to their manifests at a yard typically has taken 2 days. This is a tremendous cost in delay of goods, car rental fees, and the slowing of rail traffic due to this bottleneck.

RST's solution to this problem is to break the freight consists apart as they come into the yard by using the patent pending turntable. A video of this operation can be seen at YouTube.

RST engaged Neighbor Webmaster to design the web site.