A marshalling yard is a place where goods trains originate & terminate. Goods
wagons, loaded & empty, arriving from different directions are shorted out & classified
according to a plan so as to enable fresh trains to be formed with optimum load for the
locomotive & running of goods wagons in full loads or large blocks through to destination or ...
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to the farthest possible common point. The need of marshalling yards, of course, arises from
the fact that on the railways the unit of movement, which is the train, is much larger than
the unit of booking which typically is the wagon & therefore, facilities for consolidating the
wagons together into train as well as for braking up trains & sorting outs into individual
wagons become essential.
Marshalling yards are thus a very vital part of the goods operation scheme and, in
fact, the predominant proportion of total wagon time is spent not on trains but in
marshalling yards. That is why the marshalling yards are often referred to as ‘necessary evil’
which, if not properly worked can easily become a ‘graveyard’ for wagons. The yards are
normally located at the following types of places:
1. Junction routes.
2. Junction of gauges.
3. Major ports.
4. Major industrial complexes.
5. Collieries.
Marshalling yards may be hump yards or flat yards. In India on the M.G. only flat
yards are permitted, & on the B.G. also by far the most numerous are the flat yards.
However, all the most important large yards on the B.G. are the hump yards. A hump yard is
one wherein an artificial gradient, shaped like a camel’s humps, is introduced on the
shunting neck so that wagons pushed up to the crest of the hump by a shunting engine can
free run down on the other side, & can be send into separate lines or sorting sidings by a
operation of the relevant points as the wagons are moving. This enables a hump yard to
handle or sort out a vastly increased number of wagons. Thus under Indian conditions, where
as a flat yard with a single shunting neck can handle about 400 to 500 wagons a day, a
hump yard can handle more than 1500 to 1600 wagons per day. However, the speed picked
up by a wagon while rolling down the hump into the sorting sidings necessitates special
arrangement for braking of the wagons to prevent damage because of excessive impact.
This is the reason why hump yards are not permitted on M.G., where the existing wagon
designed is unable to take heavy impact. The main function of marshalling yards may be
summarized under:
1. To pass through trains after changing engine or crew, TXR examination, detached
sick wagons, if any, & adjust the load of the train, if necessary, according to the
maximum permissible on the next engine run.
2. To sort out the terminating trains & local loads originating in the yards.
3. To form originating through trains for farthest point possible or farthest destination
possible in accordance with marshalling orders laid down by the H.Q. office.
4. To form shunting & van goods trains for different sections served by the yards
including suburban sections, if any.
5. To hold back trains & wagons till they are able to be got out.
6. To move train engine & shunting engine pilot between yards & loco shad.
7. To place & withdrawn wagons from various point in the local area such as goods
sheds, sick lines, transshipments sheds & departmental sidings, industrial sidings, etc.215
A large hump marshalling yard consisting of reception yard and classification yard
and dispatch yard and also facilities for bypassing through trains. A loco shed, sick line,
transshipment shed and grid yard for formation of shunting trains are also indicated. A yard
of this type where in wagons enter at one end and progress forward in one direction from
stage to stage until departure is called a uniflow yard. The layout indicates that trains from
both, up and down directions can be dealt with in this yard. That is why it may be called a
’single yard’. It is also possible to have separate yard for receiving UP trains and DOWN
trains as is the case, for example, at Mughalsarai, such layout can be justified only for the
very largest amount of traffic.
Organization and working- A large yard may handle up to 3000 and more wagons
per day. It is, therefore, increasingly becoming the practice to place the bigger yard under
the direct supervision of a junior or senior scale officer who is called ‘Area Officer’. Although
the officer directly controls only the operating staff, he is also given the responsibility of
coordinating the functions of various departments working in the yard-commercial, carriage
and wagon, loco, signal and telecommunication, electrical, security and civil engineeringwho are all contributing directly or indirectly to the functioning of the yard. An idea of the
magnitude of operation and the number of men involved may be obtained from the
Mughalsarai yard, where the total staff strength of all department including both Northern
and Eastern railway, is over 10,000.