A method and apparatus are provided for sorting or retrieving items to/from a plurality of destinations areas. The items are loaded onto one of a plurality of independently controlled delivery vehicles. The delivery vehicles follow a path to/from the destination areas, which are positioned along the path. Once at the appropriate destination area, an item is transferred between the delivery vehicle and the destination area.

To provide a railroad vehicle 10 capable of controlling a private room temperature and a guest room temperature with a simple configuration without increasing the number of manufacturing steps and without requiring complicated control while using a common air conditioner in view of the fact that the number of passengers of a private room and the number of passengers of a general guest room are largely different from each other in many cases, which causes a change in indoor temperature. A railroad vehicle 10 includes a private room 12, a guest room 11, an air conditioner 20, and a main duct 30 for supplying conditioned air conditioned by the air conditioner 20 to the guest room 11, a branch duct 40 for connecting the main duct 30 to the private room 12 is provided in order to supply the conditioned air, and the branch duct 40 includes an introduced air port 42 for introducing the air of the guest room 11 to the branch duct 40 in accordance with a difference between the pressure in the guest room 11 and the pressure in the branch duct 40 or the private room 12.

An unmanned rail vehicle for surveillance, inspection, and/or maintenance of an industrial site is provided. The rail vehicle includes at least two carry rollers adapted for engaging on an upper rail side of a rail, wherein the center of gravity of the rail vehicle is vertically below the upper rail side; and at least one support roller connected to the chassis and adapted for rolling against a lateral rail side of the rail to laterally displace the center of gravity of the rail vehicle with respect to the upper rail side.

This disclosure discloses a braking-recovery system and method for a train, and a train. The system includes: a traction network, a train, and an energy storage power station. The energy storage power station is connected to the traction network, the energy storage power station includes a second controller, and the second controller controls the energy storage power station according to the voltage of the traction network to perform charging or discharging. The train includes: an electric brake; a battery; a distributor, connected to the electric brake, where there is a node between the distributor and the electric brake; a bidirectional DC/DC converter, where one end of the bidirectional DC/DC converter is connected to the battery, and another end of the bidirectional DC/DC converter is connected to the node; and a first controller, used to control, when the train is braked, the distributor and the bidirectional DC/DC converter to feed back braking electric energy of the train to the traction network, and control the bidirectional DC/DC converter according to a voltage of the traction network to absorb the braking electric energy of the train by using the battery.

According to some embodiments, a railcar comprises a first well component supported by a first railcar truck and a second railcar truck. The first well component is disposed between the first railcar truck and the second railcar truck. The length of the first well component is restricted to transport an intermodal shipping container no longer than twenty feet in length. In particular embodiments, the first well component is configured to transport a double stack of twenty-foot intermodal shipping containers. Each twenty-foot shipping container of the double stack may be loaded to maximum weight of 67,000 pounds. Particular embodiments include an articulated railcar with two or more twenty-foot well components.

Various embodiments of an autonomous rail vehicle that can travel ahead of a locomotive at a distance proportional to the locomotive's stopping capability are disclosed. The rail vehicle may scan its surroundings, gauges track conditions, and communicates with locomotive operators of the scanned results in real-time to timely enable activation of the locomotive's emergency brakes in case of detection of off-normal track conditions. The rail vehicle may paired with the locomotive and provides eyes to locomotive operators so that they can have information on tracks viability well ahead of the locomotive.

A bolster structure is capable of securing a prescribed space between a bolster and an underframe, maintaining the rigidity of the bolster structure, and reducing its weight and cost. The bolster structure is provided on an underframe constituting a floor of a railroad vehicle, and is formed by joining a plurality of shaped members having a multi-layer structure in which a width direction of the structure body is an extrusion direction. The plurality of shaped members include: shaped members 15B and 15C having a region in which a part of layers on an underframe side is notched at a center of the structure body in the width direction; and shaped members including a fastening portion formed by notching a part of layers at both ends of the structure body in the width direction. A side beam of the underframe is fixed by the fastening portion.

A conveyor system includes a rail having one or more channels therein and one or more sleds operatively associated with the rail. A sled can include a body and one or more wheels mounted on the body and configured to move through the one or more channels in the rail. A sled can also include a holding device connected to the body. The holding device can be configured to engage a packaging container to move the packaging container along the rail. Multiple sleds can be used to secure a packaging container therebetween and move the packaging container along the rail. The conveyor system may also include a queue system that dynamically moves packaging containers to packaging stations.

A locomotive consist including a pair of fuel-electric locomotives, each having a prime mover engine and a power transmission system including a main generator and traction motors coupled to driving wheels, a high voltage electrical connection operable in an on state or an off state, and a computer controller. The pair of fuel-electric locomotives is configured to selectively cooperate to operate in three different operating modes as controlled by the computer controller: (1) a prime mover mode, (2) a mother/slug mode, and a mother/inoperative mode.

An underframe boundary beam connecting structure suitable for a railway vehicle with a drum-shaped vehicle body is provided. An underframe boundary beam is a through long roll bending piece, a section of the through long roll bending piece is of a channel structure, and has a side face, an upper wing face, and a lower wing face. The side face has an inclination angle consistent with a side wall plate, an upper end of an outer side of the side face is provided with a concave platen, and the side wall plate is lapped on the concave platen and fixed by a butt welding; an inner end of the lower wing face is provided with a downwards vertical flanging, a vertical plate is welded and fixed between the upper wing face and the lower wing face.