Comprehensive calculation of switching zone occupancy in operations with non-standard length trains

   Modern trends of increasing the weight and length of freight trains impose significant loads on railway infrastructure, leading to an imbalance between growing traffic volumes and station capacity. Handling trains whose length exceeds the standard useful length of receiving-departure tracks increases the occupancy of switching zone elements, receiving-departure and connecting tracks, and leads to an increase in the volume of shunting work for repositioning parts of trains that do not fit within the tracks. These negative effects significantly depend on both train parameters (train length, number of cars) and the design features of a particular station. For instance, accurately determining the additional occupancy of switching zones and receiving-departure tracks requires considering the track layout design, the availability of parallel moves and alternative routes, and the sectionalization of yards. The lengths of receiving, departing, and shunting movement routes, as well as the location of insulation joints and boundaries of insulated switching sections, are also significant. Furthermore, the dynamics of train movement during reception and departure, which affects the duration of occupancy of various yard and switching zone elements, is important. This dynamics depends not only on the route length (as in the classical methodology for calculating switching zone load) but also on other factors, including track plan and profile, and speed restrictions. Ensuring accurate assessment of the impact of operating non-standard length trains, considering the above, requires improved methods for modeling the operation of switching zones and yards.
   This article proposes a new methodology for assessing the load on station track development elements. Its core is a comprehensive model that includes a simulation model of switching zone operations implementing a resource-based approach to element occupancy, coupled with a database containing coordinate-based representations of travel time curves for transportation units referenced to insulated section boundaries.
   The resource-based approach in the simulation model implies that each infrastructure object (switches, tracks, etc.) is considered a separate resource, whose occupancy is defined by time intervals. The method is implemented using simulation modeling in the AnyLogic environment, which simplifies calculations and enhances the accuracy of capacity assessment. The coordinate-based representation of travel time curves is proposed to be generated based on an autonomous simulation model for traction and braking calculations. Particular attention is paid to automating the calculation of switching zone occupancy times using piece-wise linear approximation of train travel time curves.

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