V. Role – play:

Interview. Make up a dialogue. Work in groups of 5-6 students. One student, a correspondent of the newspaper "Gudok", takes an interview from the employees of the Ministry of Railroad Transportation. Use possible phrases from the interview-model given above in the Unit 1.

Topics for discussion:

1. Importance of railroads in economic life.

2. History of railroad construction in Russia.

3. Advantages of transportation by railroad.

UNIT 3

I. Text 3a. Classification of stations

Read and translate the text :

A railroad is a network of terminals and junctions. It includes stations to handle passengers and freight, yards to make up trains, shops to repair locomotives and cars, signal and communication systems to control train traffic. Terminal operation presents various problems. According to their assignment there are different types of stations: classification or marshaling yards, passenger and freight stations.

As to their size and position they may be subdivided into intermediate terminals or through stations, division terminals and junctions.

The major problems connected with rail transportation relate to more rapid movement of freight and passengers. This requires better organizing, speedier and more efficient operation of trains through intermediate terminals. The main objective of an intermediate terminal is loading and unloading trains with passengers, freight and baggage, shunting operations, serving sidings. At the intermediate terminal fast trains may also go ahead slow ones.

Passenger stations are responsible for passenger traffic. The passenger station is a place where passengers begin and end their rail journey. Passengers can also change trains and book tickets at through passenger stations. Through stations are situated between division terminals.

Division terminals lie on the borderline of locomotive turnover.* The length of the division may be different: from three hundred miles long to forty miles long. A division with many trains and extensive terminal facilities is known to be much shorter than division with few trains and small terminals. Some trains run only between terminals on a single division. Division terminals mainly serve for changing locomotives and crews, technical inspection of trains, assembling local trains, passenger and freight operations of greater volume than at intermediate terminals. A division is operated under the direction of a division superintendent, who is responsible for the movement of trains. On most railroads the division superintendent also supervises the maintenance and repair of track and rolling stock of his division, but on some railroads his duty is only the supervision of train movements. The division superintendent is responsible to the general manager, who is the chief operating officer of the entire railroad.

The important principle of a freight yard is to permit efficient and economic freight handling. The work performed at freight yards has 2 main phases: shed operations and yard operations. Freight trains are made up in the freight yards of terminals. A freight yard consists of a great number of tracks which are used for sorting and distributing cars. Usually railroad freight yards are located in the outlying parts of the city, where there is plenty of room.

It is in the freight yards that the journeys of all freight trains begin and end. The freight yard is the place where the incoming trains are received. The cars are stored. Many of them, loaded with inbound freight are distributed to their tracks, industrial sidings and store houses. Some of them have destination further along the railroad. These cars stay in the yard on stub tracks* or home tracks* and as soon as possible are placed in outgoing trains to continue their journey.

The freight yard is also the place where the cars of outbound freight are collected and composed into trains and sent to their destinations. Each day switch engines travel to and fro* between freight yards and industrial sidings, team tracks* and freight houses, leaving cars of inbound freight and collecting cars of outbound freight.

The work of the freight yard is under the supervision of a yard-master. The work of the yard-master is very difficult. Cars may come into the yard at all hours, both day and night. The work of some freight yards is now being facilitated by the use of radio-telephone system and electronic computers.

Freight trains are assembled in classification yards at various railroad ter-minals. A terminal may also have facilities for loading and unloading incoming cars and for repairing locomotives and cars. After freight cars arrive at a classification yard, they are broken up and sorted into groups according to their destination. All the cars in a group must be headed for destinations along the same route or along branches of this route. After a locomotive has been coupled to such a group of cars, the cars become a freight train. Cars headed for destinations off the main route must be switched to other trains along the way.

Any railroad terminal with no less than 3 adjoining main tracks is a rail junction or interchange. In most cases a rail junction includes several terminals and abutting tracks.* In large junctions terminals are specialized according to their functions (marshaling yards, passenger and freight terminals). Thus, a junction is an arrangement of terminal facilities for handling freight and passenger traffic for the purpose of assembling, classifying and relaying trains.

In the past, railroad freight shipments frequently met long delays at classification yards and interchanges where cars are switched from one railroad to another. In addition, railroads often had difficulty keeping track of cars that had to be changed several times.

In order to speed freight shipments, railroads have improved their freight-handling methods in 3 main ways. First, they have modernized classification yards. Second, they have simplified the work performed at interchanges. Third, and perhaps most important, the railroads have developed computer systems for planning and monitoring their operations. In one such system, the computer generates a specific «trip plan» for each car. As the car moves in a train from its origin to its destination, its plan is checked at classification yards to see that the car is moving on schedule. The shipper and the receiver of the car can then be notified of the car’s delivery time.

To further reduce delays at interchanges, railroads in the United States have set up a system called TRAIN (TeleRail Automated Information Network). Every interchange of freight cars is reported by computer to the national TRAIN computer center in Washington, D.C. Railroads check with the center to keep track of their cars.

Notes:

* the borderline of locomotive turnover – граница поворота локомотива

* stub tracks – тупиковые пути

* home tracks – пути, ведущие к пакгаузу

* to and fro – вперед и назад

* team tracks – перегрузочные пути

* abutting tracks – примыкающие пути

A C T I V E V O C A B U L A R Y

1. to handle traffic – осуществлять перевозки

2. to make up = to assemble = to form – составлять, формировать

3. shop – цех, мастерская

4. according to the assignment – согласно назначению

5. intermediate terminal = through station – промежуточная станция

6. classification or marshaling yard – сортировочная станция

7. freight station (yard) – товарная станция, двор

8. to subdivide – подразделять

9. division terminal – участковая станция

10. junction = interchange – узловая, пересадочная

станция, развязка

11. shunting operations – маневровые операции

12. to serve sidings – обслуживать подъездные пути

13. to book tickets (seats) = to reserve – заказывать билеты

14. local train – поезд местного значения

15. shed operations – работы в складах, депо

16. yard operations – станционные работы

17. to load = to board – грузить

18. to unload = to empty – разгружать

19. incoming = inbound cars – прибывающие вагоны

20. outgoing = outbound trains – уходящие поезда

21. to break up = to split up = – расформировывать, to disassemble = to disconnect a train разъединять поезд

22. destination – пункт назначения

23. to couple – сцеплять, прицеплять

24. to switch a train = to turn a switch – переводить поезд на другой

путь

25. adjoining tracks – прилегающие пути

26. freight shipments – отправка, отгрузка груза

27. delay – задержка

28. handling methods, operations – погрузо-разгрузочные методы, операции

29. to monitor operations – контролировать операции

30. shipper – отправитель

Comprehension questions:

1. How are stations divided according to their assignment?

2. How are terminals subdivided as to their size and position?

3. What services can railroad stations and yards perform?

4. What does rapid movement of freight and passengers require?

5. What are passenger stations responsible for?

6. What do division terminals serve for?

7. What operations does a freight yard perform?

8. Where are trains assembled, broken up and classified?

9. What is a rail junction?

10. When and where did freight shipments meet long delays?

11. What have the railroads done in order to speed freight shipments and reduce delays at interchanges?