Siemens Mobility upgrades Switzerland's central sorting facility

2021: Reconstruction of Limmattal sorting centre

On October 15, 2021, Siemens Mobility announced that it had received a contract from the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) for the modernization of the Limmattal marshalling yard. The contract involves the partial reconstruction of equipment and pea automatic centralization, as well as the replacement of spring-hydraulic retarders.

Limmattal station of the Swiss Federal Railway is the central hub of wagon traffic in Switzerland. It processes up to 5500 cars per day, and the peak is 330 cars per hour. The station has 18 tracks in the arrival park, 64 mountain tracks and two approach paths, which makes it possible to carry out parallel dissolution. The slide is equipped with three brake positions and car tensioners on all fence tracks. The surge is carried out automatically by locomotives controlled by radio.

The Limmattal slide is an automated and high-performance sorting system with a high degree of technical readiness. The system, MSR32 the modernization of which will take "Siemens Mobility," has been used here since 1999. For time her work, there was not a single gathering, and the departure of cars to unplanned paths for them was extremely rare. In addition, the system avoids surges and side bumps during dissolution.

The MSR32 has been repeatedly used on Swiss railways. Over the past decade, SBB and Siemens Mobility have launched mountain systems at Basel 1 (2012 and 2013) and Basel 2 (2020) sorting stations. Other Swiss marshalling yards, such as Lausanne, Bux and Chiasso, are also equipped with Siemens Mobility solutions.

Siemens Mobility undertakes the reconstruction of automatic dissolution control, which includes: mountain automatic centralization, including fast-acting switch drives and an automatic speed control system; integrated remote control of the locomotive by radio; beam spring-hydraulic car 21-stage retarders; car pullers on all 64 fence tracks.

The dissolution control system is connected to the central control system via the local interface computer - this control room will also be upgraded, which will bring the level of equipment to the current technical standards. It is planned that no later than 2024 the system will meet all the necessary requirements for freight transportation, while throughout the reconstruction process the operation of the Limmattal marshalling yard will not be interrupted.

Siemens Mobility will have to reconstruct two key subsystems in a fairly short time. Only 96 hours are allotted for work with retarders of the first braking positions during the Easter holidays in 2025 and 2026. To cope with this task, the company is already carefully considering logistics at the construction site.

The first stage of reconstruction is planned to be completed in 2026.