Some Problems Encountered in the Design or Automatic Freight Train

Considerable engineering effort is being used today to provide automation in various forms to the railroad industry. It is well, therefore, to consider some basic problems which would be encountered should it be desired to automate a freight train. This paper will be confined to the locomotive and train controls only, with the realization that problems associated with wayside equipment form still another category. Most of the data used herein are from train automation feasibility tests run near London, Ontario, Canada, in the summer of 1960, as a joint effort of the Air Brake Division of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, The Canadian National Railway, General Motors Diesel, Ltd., and the General Railway Signal Company.