CN: from RDC to track geometry vehicle

Railway Age, Nov, 2008

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It may look a lot like the classic Budd RDC from which it was built, but this new railcar is actually a state-of-the-art, self-propelled track geometry inspection vehicle custom-built for CN by Gateway Rail Services, Inc, of Madison, Ill., with a geometry system from ENSCO Inc, The hi-directional vehicle supplements CN's TEST (Track Evaluation System) car for gathering continuous, real-time reports on track condition, including curvature, alignment, and cross-level, It's equipped with high-speed cameras and optical recognition software to detect joint bar flaws, CN engineering forces use the reports to address track irregularities and plan long-term rail replacement programs.

CN Chief Safety and Transportation Officer Paul Miller says the new vehicle "will permit us to increase the amount of in-house main line track geometry testing across our network," In 2007, CN conducted geometric testing on approximately 65,000 track-miles, a 35% increase over 2006, This year CN plans to boost geometric testing by a further 15%, to 75,000 track-miles.