Patent ID: 7813846
Filing Date: 2010-10-12
Classification: B61L,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of planning the movement of plural railcars through a rail yard, the rail yard having tracks that are used as receiving tracks, classification tracks and departure tracks and the plural railcars arriving on inbound trains and departing on outbound trains, the plural railcars required to undergo a sequence of tasks to move through the rail yard, comprising: (a) receiving a plurality of trains in a rail yard, each train having a plurality of railcars received on a receiving track; (b) for each group of railcars on a receiving track, assigning an importance value for each railcar; (c) aggregating the importance values of the railcars for each receiving track; (d) scheduling the railcars to be moved to the classification tracks as a function of the aggregated importance values of each of the receiving tracks, and (e) moving the railcars of the receiving track having the highest aggregated importance value to the scheduled classification tracks, before moving railcars of a receiving track having a lower aggregated value; wherein the importance value is determined as a function of the scheduled departure time of the railcar and the probability of the railcar to make an outbound connection.