Patent Abstract:
A cargo discharge railcar for comprising a generally rectangular base structure, a plurality of walls coupled to the base structure defining an enclosure for carrying cargo, a hopper portion coupled to the base structure, a discharge gate coupled to the hopper portion, a control system coupled to the discharge gate for opening and closing the discharge gate, a central processing unit for controlling the control system, and a global positioning system receiver electrically coupled to the central processing unit for receiving longitude and latitude data from a global positioning system transmitter orbiting the Earth. The discharge gate is adapted to be selectively opened and closed based in part upon the longitude and latitude of the cargo discharge railcar.

Full Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/221,068 filed Jul. 27, 2000, titled “Ballast Discharge System.” 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention:  
           [0003]    The present invention relates in general to ballast discharge equipment for use in depositing ballast material on a rail bed. In particular, the present invention relates to a computer controlled ballast discharge system.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Prior Art:  
           [0005]    In the late 1980&#39;s, the Burlington Northern Railroad Company initiated the development of a new type of automated ballast railcar. These railcars are operated in unit train groups and have improved the efficiency of ballast unloading by allowing workers to unload a 54-car train with only two employees, and which allowed the ballast discharge operation to be conducted at generally walking speed. The trains could unload in approximately 6 to 9 hours of track time over a period of two days. The automated unit train concept improved the cycle time on the cars (which is the time period from load to reload) dramatically from about 20 days to less than 5 days. Furthermore, it allowed operations to be conducted with fewer employees, which is beneficial from a cost and safety standpoint. By 1997, the successor to the Burlington Northern Railroad Company, the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (“BNSF”) was using automated ballast trains to improve efficiency. This allowed the retiring of old ballast cars from the fleet. There are two types of cars generally used by BNSF. One utilizes an electrical system in which the discharge gates are radio controlled, and the other utilizes a hydraulic system in which the discharge gates are hydraulically controlled. On cars with hydraulic gates, some of the gates may be radio controlled and some may be manually controlled with actuating handles on the side of the car.  
           [0006]    Of course, it is always desirable to operate at higher rates and with fewer personnel. The present invention is directed to an improvement to the prior art automated ballast discharge railcars.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    There is a need for an improved railroad ballast discharge system that utilizes global position systems (“GPS”).  
           [0008]    It is one objective of the present invention to utilize GPS in combination with an automatic ballast discharge railcar in order to further improve ballast discharge operations by increasing the speed of operations, by reducing the number of personnel required, and by providing for relatively well controlled predictable depositions of ballast.  
           [0009]    It is another objective of the present invention to provide an improved ballast discharge system which allows at least one controller and at least one GPS receiver to receive global position data from global position satellites, to read the global position data, to compare the global position data to global position information recorded in program memory, and to open and close discharge gates of a plurality of ballast railcars in a pre-programmed and pre-determined manner in order to deposit ballasts at pre-selected portions of the rail line and to not deposit ballast in other pre-selected portions of the rail line.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]    The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself however, as well as a preferred mode of use and further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1A is a pictorial representation of an automated ballast rail car according to the present invention;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 1B is an enlarged pictorial representation of one of the ballast discharge gates of the automated ballast railcar of FIG. 1A;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 2 is a block diagram representation of the present invention which utilizes a GPS receiver to provide GPS derived location data to a central processing unit;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 3A is a schematic representation of a section of rail line;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 3B is a detailed view of the section of rail line of FIG. 3A, showing preselected portions of the rail line in which the ballast is to be deposited or not deposited;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 4 if a flow-chart representation of the preferred process of determining and recording location and ballast requirements for a portion of rail line;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 5 is a flow-chart representation of the operation of the computer program to selectively discharge ballast in accordance with pre-selected and pre-programmed location and discharge data;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 6 is a pictorial representation of a portion of a ballast train according to the present invention; and  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 7 is a tabular representation of operation depicted in FIG. 3B.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0020]    Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B in the drawings, pictorial representations of a cargo discharge railcar  11  according to the present invention are illustrated. Railcar  11  includes a generally rectangular base structure  17 , walls  19  coupled to base structure  17 , and hoppers  21  coupled to base structure  17 . A plurality of rail wheel assemblies  23  are coupled to the underneath side of base structure  17 . In the preferred embodiment, the cargo is railroad ballast. Discharge gates  13  may be selectively actuated and moved between an open condition and a closed condition. When in the closed condition, discharge gates  13  prevent the discharge of ballast (not shown) carried within railcar  11 . When in the open condition, discharge gates  13  allow the ballast to be discharged at a pre-selected flow rate through discharge gates  13  and onto a road bed  15 . Discharge gates  13  may actuated by electrical means, hydraulic means, a combination of electrical and hydraulic means, or other means for actuating similar discharge gates.  
         [0021]    Referring now to FIG. 2 in the drawings, a block diagram representation of the present invention is illustrated. As is shown, a plurality of GPS transmitters, including GPS transmitters  101  and  103  are provided in orbit above the Earth and may be utilized in a conventional manner to determine a location in terms of latitude and longitude by the interaction between at least one GPS receiver and the one or more GPS transmitters  101  and  103 . As is shown, at least one GPS receiver  105  is carried by railcar  11 . GPS receiver  105  may be located in one of the ballast railcars or it may be located in some other location, such as the locomotive. GPS receiver  105  communicates GPS data to a central processing unit (CPU)  107  with which is associated conventional supporting electronics, such as RAM memory  109  and ROM memory  111 . RAM memory  109  and ROM memory  111  may be utilized to record program instructions which may be executed by central processing unit  107  in order to generate signals for controlling the discharge of ballast from a series or train of cargo discharge railcars  11 . Typically, a relatively large number of ballast railcars, such as fifty railcars, are utilized to deposit ballast where needed to build up road bed  15 . The requirements of a particular portion of a rail line may vary. A typical ballast discharge operation will require the discharge of from one hundred to six hundred tons of ballast per mile with railcars generally containing one hundred tons of ballast per car. The tonnage that is deposited will depend upon the speed of railcars  11 , the number of railcars  11  used, the number of discharge gates  13  in the open condition, and the size of discharge gates  13 , which determines the flow rate of the ballast through discharge gate  13 . Typically, a ballast railcar  11  carries four discharge gates on the undercarriage. Relatively simple mathematical calculations can be done to determine the number of gates which are required to be in the open condition to discharge a predetermined amount of ballast over a predetermined portion of a rail line at a given velocity. Typically, once the discharge operations begin, a number of cars are unloaded continuously through the discharge gates. For example, it is not uncommon for five cars worth of ballast to be emptied out over one mile of a rail line.  
         [0022]    It is important to note that there may be sections of railroad in which little or no discharge is required. For example, there may be sections with turnouts or switches, road crossings, bridges, and/or tunnels which may not require any additional ballast. Accordingly, it is one objective of the present invention to allow for the selective opening and closing of gates in accordance with preprogrammed GPS location data and preprogrammed discharge data in order to deposit the appropriate amount of ballast in only the appropriate locations, and to prevent the discharge of ballast in predetermined locations which do not require additional ballast.  
         [0023]    At present it is conventional to merely open or close discharge gates  13 . However, it is possible to utilize the present invention to open and close discharge gates  13  in pre-selected amounts in order to better control or “throttle” the rate of discharge of ballast at particular portions of a rail line. At present, the ballast material is relatively uniform in both size and weight so it is practical to assume that each gate will discharge a comparable amount of ballast. It is typical to have each ballast railcar  11  carry as much as 100 tons of ballast rock.  
         [0024]    Returning now to FIG. 2 in the drawings, as is shown, CPU  107  controls and maintains control valves  113 ,  115 , and  117 . Control valves  113 ,  115 , and  117  operate to switch discharge gates  13  from the open condition to the closed condition, and vice versa. It should be understood that control valves  113 ,  115 , and  117  may be either electrical or hydraulic control valves, or any other suitable control valve. Additionally, the duration of the open and/or closed condition of each gate may be determined by a clock  110  for the speed data received at input  112 , which represents the current speed of the train in units of miles per hour, or any other appropriate measure of velocity. Accordingly, control valves  113 ,  115 , and  117  may be opened and closed in accordance with preprogrammed instructions. In other words, the GPS locations at which each discharge gate  13  is opened and closed may be preprogrammed. In this manner, both location and amount of the discharge may be controlled by CPU  107 .  
         [0025]    Referring now to FIGS. 3A and 3B in the drawings, the operation of discharging the ballast on a particular rail line is depicted schematically. As is shown, a rail line comprising sections  125 ,  127 , and  129  extends between Station A represented by reference numeral  121 , and Station B represented by reference numeral  123 . In the operation depicted in FIG. 3A, section  125  of the rail line does not require any additional ballast, nor does section  129 . However, section  127  of rail between location L 1  and location LN does require the discharge of a particular amount of ballast. FIG. 3B is a detailed schematic depiction of the Section  127 . As is shown, Section  127  begins at location L 1  and ends at location LN. Location L 1  is determined by GPS data in terms of latitude and longitude. Likewise, location LN is determined by a particular latitude and a longitude. As is shown, there are several rail segments,  137 ,  139 ,  141 ,  143  which require additional ballasts in predetermined amounts. For example, segment  137  requires an amount “X” of ballast; segment  139  requires an amount “Y” of ballast; segment  141  requires an amount “X” of ballast; and segment  143  requires an amount “A” of ballast. Each of these ballast amounts may be set forth in tons of ballast per linear mile. For each rate of travel, the operator will know the amount of discharge possible for each ballast rail car  11  in terms of ballast discharge per discharge gate  13  per unit of time. With these variables, the amount of ballast that can be deposited can be determined with some precision.  
         [0026]    Continuing with reference to FIG. 3B, segment  137  is located between location L 1  and location L 2 . Location L 1  is determined by latitude LAT 1  and longitude LON 1 . Location L 2  is determined by latitude LAT 2  and longitude LON 2 . Segment  139  is located between location L 3  and location L 4 . Location L 3  is determined by latitude LAT 3  and longitude LON 3 . Location L 4  is determined by latitude LAT 4  and longitude LON 4 . Location LN is determined by latitude LATN and longitude LONN. Segment  141  is located between location L 5  and location L 6 . Location L 5  is determined by latitude LAT 5  and longitude LON 5 . Location L 6  is determined by latitude LAT 6  and longitude LON 6 . Segment  143  is located between location L 7  and location LN. Location L 7  is determined by latitude LAT 7  and longitude LON 7 . Location LN is determined by latitude LATN and longitude LONN.  
         [0027]    A rail tunnel  131  is located between location L and location L 3 . In the example of FIG. 3B, there is no need to deposit a ballast in rail tunnel  131  located between location L 2  and location L 3 . The same is true for a rail crossing  133  located between location L 4  and location L 5 , and turnout  135  located between location L 6  and location L 7 . Each of these locations L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , L 4 , L 5 , L 6 , L 7 , and LN is determined by corresponding GPS data in terms of longitude and latitude.  
         [0028]    Referring now to FIG. 4 in the drawings, a flow chart overview of one preferred implementation of the present invention is provided. The process begins at block  201 . In step  203 , a survey of a section of a rail line is performed, either by railroad personnel, or with the use of GPS survey information from other railroad track maintenance applications. With reference to FIG. 3A, the survey would include rail segment  127  which is located between location L 1  and location LN. Next, in accordance with step  205 , the sections which need additional ballast are identified, either by railroad personnel, or with the use of GPS survey information from other railroad track maintenance applications. With reference to the example of FIG. 3B, rail tunnel  131 , railroad crossing  133 , and turnout  135  do not require additional ballast. Next, in accordance with step  207 , the GPS system data for each start location is recorded. Likewise, in accordance with step  209 , the GPS data for each stop location is recorded. With reference to the example of FIG. 3B, the start locations are location L 1 , location L 3 , location L 5 , and location L 7 . Furthermore, the stop locations are location L 2 , location L 4 , location L 6 , and location LN. In accordance with step  211 , the ballast requirements for each segment are recorded. Again, with reference to the example of FIG. 3B, segment  137  which is between locations L 1  and L 2  requires a ballast in the amount of “X.” Segment  139  which is located between location L 3  and location L 4  requires ballast in an amount of “Y.” Segment  141  which is located between location L 5  and location L 6  requires ballast in an amount of “Z.” Segment  143  which is located between location L 7  and location LN requires ballast in the amount of “A.”  
         [0029]    Continuing with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 4, in accordance with steps  213  and  215 , CPU  107  has been programmed to calculate and record gating requirements based upon various amounts of ballast for each location and at varying speeds of unloading. Then, in accordance with step  217 , programmed CPU  107  associates the GPS location data and the gating requirements data. Essentially, a data base is built which maps out a plan for depositing ballast along predetermined sections of rail which need the ballast. The process ends at step  219 .  
         [0030]    Referring now to FIG. 5 in the drawings, a flow chart representation of the preferred implementation of the present invention is illustrated. The process begins at block  251  and continues at block  253 , wherein, the CPU  107  of FIG. 2 loads the GPS data and associated ballast amounts and gate requirements data into RAM memory  109  and ROM memory  111 . Then, in accordance with step  255 , CPU  107  reads the GPS signals from GPS receiver  105 . Then, in accordance with step  257 , CPU  107  compares the GPS signal to the GPS signal maintained in the data base. In accordance with blocks  259  and  263 , CPU  107  determines through this comparison whether discharge gates  13  are required to be open or closed if there is a match. If there is a match for an open gate condition, CPU  107  will then signal an appropriate control valve  113 ,  115 , or  117  to open corresponding discharge gates  13  in accordance with step  261 . However, if the comparison of the GPS signal with the GPS data in the data base results in a match for a closed gate condition, CPU  107  will then signal an appropriate control valve  113 ,  115 , or  117  to close corresponding discharge gates  13  in accordance with step  265 . For the example of FIG. 3B, this process is iteratively repeated until section  127  of rail line is traveled in its entirety. In this manner, pre-selected discharge gates  13  are opened and closed at predetermined locations in order to deposit a predetermined amount of ballast to build up the road bed to a desired level.  
         [0031]    Referring now to FIG. 6 in the drawings, a pictorial representation of a portion of a ballast train according to the present invention is illustrated. In a typical operation, five ballast rail cars C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , C 4 , and C 5  may be simultaneously discharging ballast at a predetermined rate over a pre-selected segment of rail line. The system and CPU  107  of the present invention receive and compare GPS data to determine when to open and close discharge gates  13  so as to discharge the predetermined amounts of ballast at the predetermined segments of the rail line. When cars C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , C 4 , and C 5  are empty, CPU  107  cause other cars to begin discharging ballast.  
         [0032]    Referring now to FIG. 7 in the drawings, a tabular representation of the operation depicted in FIG. 3B is illustrated. A table  100  shows the correlation between the position intervals of the ballast train relative to locations L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , L 4 , L 5 , L 6 , L 7 , and LN; the amount of ballast discharged during these intervals; and whether discharge gates  13  are in the open condition or the closed condition.  
         [0033]    It should be understood that the present invention may be used on ballast discharge railcars of original manufacture, or may be used in retrofit applications on existing ballast discharge railcars. In retrofit applications, the existing control systems for opening and closing the discharge gates of the existing ballast discharge railcars are replaced by the control systems of the present invention, as necessary to utilize the GPS data.  
         [0034]    Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment of discharging ballast on railroad beds, it should be understood that the present invention may be utilized in any railroad application in which it is desirable to discharge a selected amount of cargo at selected points or over selected distances.  
         [0035]    It should be apparent from the foregoing that an invention having significant advantages has been provided. While the invention is shown in only one of its forms, it is not just limited but is susceptible to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments as well as alternative embodiments of the invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to the description of the invention. It is therefore contemplated that any appended claims will cover any such modifications or embodiments that fall within the scope of the invention.

Technology Classification (CPC): 1