Marshalling yard Teplička nad Vahom
Our next stop in Žilina was the marshalling yard Teplička nad Vahom. Although we some theoretical knowledge about about shunting freight train, for most of us it was the first time to see a marshalling yard. Our housts were the railway workers of the station Teplička nad Vahom. They explained to us that it was a hump marshalling yard, with a maximum shunting capacity of several thousand cars a day. The heart of these yards is the hump, a lead track on a hill (hump) that an engine pushes the cars over. Single cars, or some cars coupled in a block, are uncoupled just before or at the crest of the hump, and rolled by gravity onto their destination tracks in the marshalling bowl (the tracks where the cars are sorted). The speed of the cars rolling down from the hump into the classification bowl must be regulated because of different natural speeds of the wagons (full or empty, heavy or light freight, number of axles), the different filling of the tracks (whether there are only a few or many cars on it) and different weather conditions (temperature, wind speed and direction). Speed regulation is achieved by mechanized "rail brakes" called retarders. Tracks are divided according to railroad cars destinations. Also, we had the opportunity to enter the control room of the station, where engineers monitor the whole system.
It was very interesting for those who did not have the opportunity to visit a marshalling yard. It would be great if the school organized a visit to one of the marshalling yards in Serbia - Belgrade, Novi Sad, Lapovo or Niš, so that we could see if there are differences in shunting trains or in the station equipment.
Marija Joksić 4/2-2
Branka Jovanović 4/2-2
CZ Loko, Ihlava
On the third day of our tour we visited the locomotive factory CZ LOKO in Ihlava, where we could see certain stages of the production and reconstruction of locomotives. Members of the factory staff explained to us that the factory was producing complete locomotives at the beginning. Nowadays they only repair and reconstruct locomotives and set new driving cabs at locomotive frames.