Control of the retarders on the sorting sidings at Offenburg marshalling yard using pressure transducers

The article describes this process using the marshalling yard at Offenburg as an example.

Goods trains arriving from various directions are split up and the trucks reformed into new trains according to their next destinations. This process takes place on the grade of a marshalling yard. The individual trucks or groups of trucks automatically roll into the required sorting siding where, almost magically, they are retarded to join the waiting rows of trucks.

Pneumatically operated retarders are used on the sorting siding and the retarding devices include control circuits with pressure transducers which ensure that the correct braking force is applied. The set brake pressure is specified by a central computer to which parameters acquired by sensors are passed for the current sorting task.