Directional reference for trailing locomotives and railroad cars

Abstract

A universal directional reference for trailing locomotives and railroad cars employs a two wire mating connector for each end of the car or locomotive, each wire having a male contact at one end and a female contact at the opposite end and in a sense opposite to the other wire. A positive polarity established on one conductor having its male contact at the leading end of the controlling locomotive causes the same polarity to appear on the female contact at the rear end of said locomotive which is connected to the male contact of the next car or locomotive thereby sustaining the pattern throughout the train. Reverse orientation of any trailing unit automatically swaps the internal polarity of its trainline wires to compensate for the otherwise reverse direction of travel.

I claim:  
     
       1. A method for establishing universal and unambiguous forward and reverse directional reference for trailing locomotives and railroad cars each having a pair of first and second wires forming a two wire electrical trainline under the control of a control locomotive comprising the steps of: 
       assigning an unambiguous identification for each of the two wires in each car or locomotive;  
       assigning a corresponding first male and first female terminal contact to opposite ends of the first wire in the forward direction;  
       assigning corresponding second female and second male contact to opposite ends of second wire in the reverse direction such that the wires are paired with a male terminal contact and a female terminal contact at each end;  
       assigning a first polarity to the first wire of said two wires in the control locomotive and a second polarity to a second wire in said locomotive such that reversal of the orientation of any car or locomotive swaps the polarity of its wires thereby maintaining correct directional reference.  
     
     
       2. The method according to claim  1 , wherein the unambiguous identification of the two wires comprises assigning to at least one of said wires a direction of travel for the locomotive in accordance with a specified polarity and gender of the selected terminal contact associated with said wire. 
     
     
       3. An apparatus for establishing an unambiguous forward and reverse directional reference in a train of railroad vehicles under the control of a control locomotive having a two wire electrical trainline with first and second wires for each vehicle, said first wire having a male and female contact at opposite ends and said second wire having a male and female contact at opposite ends in a reverse sense from the first wire; said first wire of the control locomotive being polarized in use to a first polarity and second wire being polarized to an opposite polarity such that the polarity of the male contact at the front of the control locomotive is carried to the corresponding male contact at the front of any succeeding vehicle and the polarity of the female contact at the front of the control locomotive is carried to the corresponding female contact at the front of any succeeding vehicle such that the trainline polarity of all the vehicles in the train corresponds to the control locomotive when oriented in correspondence therewith and the reversal of the orientation of any vehicle swaps the polarity of the wires therein to thereby maintain correct directional reference. 
     
     
       4. Apparatus in accordance with claim  3  further comprising a detector responsively coupled to the train line and operative for establishing a direction of travel of the locomotive in accordance with a specified polarity of said train line, and a selected gender of the terminal contact associated with said wire. 
     
     
       5. The apparatus in accordance with claim  3  further comprising a detector responsively coupled to the train line polarity representative of the orientation of the locomotive and responsive to a coded input signal representative of the direction of travel for the locomotive, said detector for producing the first output for operating the locomotive in accordance with said signal and for producing the second output indicative of an opposite direction of travel for the locomotive when the polarity of the trainline is reversed. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus according to claim  4 , wherein the first and second wires are paired with a connector with one each of the male and female contacts. 
     
     
       7. The arrangement of claim  4 , wherein each connector in each vehicle has a male and female contact connected to a corresponding wire, in a sense opposite to the corresponding connector at the opposite end of the vehicle. 
     
     
       8. A method for establishing universal and unambiguous forward and reverse directional reference for trailing locomotives and railroad cars each having a pair of first and second wires forming a two wire electrical trainline under the control of a control locomotive comprising the steps of: 
       assigning an unambiguous identification for each of the two wires in each car or locomotive;  
       assigning a corresponding first male and first female terminal contact to respective opposite ends of the first wire in the forward direction;  
       assigning corresponding second male and second female terminal contact to respective opposite ends of second wire in an opposite sense to the first wire such that the first and second wires are paired with a male terminal contact and a female terminal contact at each end;  
       assigning a first polarity to the first wire of said two wires in the control locomotive and a second polarity to a second wire in said locomotive such that reversal of the orientation of any car or locomotive swaps the polarity of its wires thereby maintaining correct directional reference.  
     
     
       9. The method of claim  8 , wherein the unambiguous identification of the two wires comprises assigning to at least one of said wires, a direction of travel for the locomotive in accordance with a specified code and gender of the selected terminal contact associated with the wire.