Do you know where your locomotive is? And what condition it's in? And if your rolling stock is healthy? It's taken quite some time for advanced fault detection systems to catch on, but more railroads are testing the waters

Railway Age, Oct, 2003 by Marybeth Luczak

Most of us wouldn't dare drive our SUVs without auto insurance. So doesn't it make sense that railroads and private-car owners take out similar policies on their most precious commodities--1.6 million cars and locomotives worth more than $60 billion? Consider these stats from the Association of American Railroads:

* High impact wheels cause more than 14,000 unplanned train stops on North American railroads each year at a cost of about $1,000 per wheel or an annual cost of $14 million.

* More than 6,300 hot-bearing train stops each year result in 9,000 hours of delays, at an annual cost of $4.1 million.

* Poorly performing trucks cause about 73 accidents per year, costing North American railroads $27.7 million annually. If railroads were able to identify, these trucks earlier, they could prevent 20% of truck-related derailments, saving $5.3 million per year.

Fault detection products protect rolling stock, track infrastructure, and lading before damage, costly repairs, traffic holdups, and derailments occur. From onboard monitors to wayside technologies, they detect a variety of conditions from wheel wear and overspeed impacts to truck hunting, vertical impacts, and temperature/pressure changes. All data is passed on--often in real time--via telephone, fax, pager or the Internet, allowing railroads, contractors, and customers to act on it quickly. Such information is critical to tracking and monitoring the health of locomotives and sensitive freight such as perishables, finished automobiles, hazardous materials, and wide-and-heavy industrial loads.

Bottom line: While the cost-benefit analysis for each fault detection system varies, there's no doubt that railroads can save more money and time with fault detection systems. They make maintenance more efficient so that cars stay in service longer, there is less material cost and waste, man-hours for vehicle inspection are reduced, and car availability is increased--leading to improved service reliability and, possibly, growth in traffic and revenue.

While fault detection technology has been on the horizon for years, only in the past five have railroads really caught on to its benefits and slowly started to install advanced monitoring devices, according to Firdausi Irani, executive director of performance monitoring systems for Transportation Technology. Center, Inc. "The Class I's understand that detection systems allow them to take proactive steps to reducing forces on equipment and rail infrastructure, which saves money all around."

Prevention is key

"We see fault detection technology as critically important," says Craig Hill, vice president-mechanical and value engineering for Burlington Northern and Santa Fe. "There are two major disruptions to the railroad: derailments and service interruptions. Our job is to reduce and/or prevent each of them. We've had significant success at reducing derailments, as the mechanical cause is down 55-60%, year over year. The point is that we want to be able to plan maintenance so that we are proactive rather than reactive when something breaks."

Other railroaders agree. "CSX is pushing forward with many initiatives to improve reliability of over-road operations, and our fault detection initiatives play into that," says Greg Martin, chief mechanical officer at CSX Transportation.

Applications

Currently, wayside fault detectors are more pervasive than onboard monitors, as they can read cars from one location. Railroads decide where to install these detectors based on traffic volumes and risk assessment--commodity type, car mileage, and/or track and car condition.

"Our strategic direction is to use more wayside detection technology," says Rex Beck, Union Pacific's director of freight car engineering. "The cost of entry is much more reasonable than equipping every freight car with monitors. We have plans to put together a systemwide network to monitor the health of freight cars running across our tracks. There will be 20 strategic sites to monitor a large percentage of our railcar fleet. We have a good start on it now. We've got hot bearing detectors, which we are upgrading, 13 wheel impact load detectors, one acoustic bearing detector, two truck performance detectors, and a low hose detector."

Onboard fault detection is still a niche, as the economics of putting monitors on every railcar have to be justified, but it's found a home in places where wayside detectors can't reach. "It certainly has an application in the transport of high-value and/or sensitive commodities--like finished automobiles and perishables," says TTCI's Irani.

UP is among the Class I's that implement these systems, most often on refrigerated cars. "We thought it was appropriate because it's one of the biggest opportunities for reduction of claims due to product loss," says UP's Beck, who reports that more than 1,000 UP refrigerated boxcars are now equipped with onboard systems. "Primarily, we use them to prevent the loss of loads, and secondarily, we have the opportunity to save fuel through better asset management," Beck says. The detectors monitor car temperature, generator fuel levels, and location, as well as refrigeration-unit health, among other characteristics. Through two-way satellite communication, the railroad can start and stop the refrigeration unit remotely and perform self-diagnostics to ensure that cars are ready for loading before they reach customers. If there is a temperature loss or if the unit is low on fuel, railroad personnel are automatically alerted through a Web-based alarm, so that the units can be serviced. UP's five year plan includes equipping its entire fleet of about 4,500 refrigerated cars with detectors.