ABSTRACT
On e of the most important features upon any railway system as affecting the make-up of freight trains, and therefore the train load, is the marshalling yard. Just as the tranship station or shed was shown (in our last chapter) to have great importance in the obtaining of a good wagon load, so upon the proper organisation of the marshalling yard depends the good loading of the trains despatched therefrom. In Fig. 23 is given the daily number of wagons in one month leaving one of the busy yards in the North of England, and this statement will furnish a good foundation of fact on which to commence our consideration of the function of a marshalling yard. It will be seen that during the month 130,000 wagons left the yard (or about 5,000 every day), and all these wagons had to be shunted, or marshalled, in the yard, and made up into train loads to despatch to their varying destinations. These destinations may be North, South, East or West ; and the size, or maximum loads, in each direction vary. The work of the yard-master and his staff is to marshal or classify the wagons for forward despatch in such a manner as will give the best operating results ; in America the term applied is the <c classification yard,” because in the yard the wagons are classified according to their varying destinations and trains. It will be appreciated at once that the problem is a sufficiently intricate one, calling for a highly trained mind-or rather for the co-operation of a number of trained minds-to handle it.
