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October 2024
Compiled by Michael Popke
The IQ Series™ gateway with Bogie IQ® technology is a telematics solution designed to deliver rail-car health and status data without the need for additional wireless sensors, Amsted Digital Solutions officials said in an email.
When mounted anywhere on a rail car, the IQ Series gateway provides real-time GPS location data, enabling accurate mileage calculations, dynamic estimated time of arrival, geofence alerts, and first- and last-mile validation. It also identifies changes in load status and detects impacts to better manage rail-car utilization and maintenance planning. When mounted directly on a bogie and configured with Bogie IQ technology, the device also monitors for wheel tread defects and brake slide events.
The IQ Series gateway’s hybrid power system combines solar and rechargeable batteries for a performance life of up to 10 years; over-the-air firmware upgrades provide instant access to new capabilities, company officials said.
Amsted Digital Solutions is a subsidiary of Amsted Rail, a provider of undercarriage and end-of-car components with more than 40 locations on six continents.
Hitachi Rail’s digital infrastructure monitoring solution uses cameras mounted on trains to monitor overhead lines live.
The technology underwent trials on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom, where cameras on LNER Azuma trains provided a continually updated visual dataset, company officials said. Uploaded to Hitachi Rail servers, the data allowed near real-time monitoring and fault detection. A machine learning analytics program provided further assistance by identifying deviations in overhead lines, thereby predicting potential failures.
The successful trial has led to continued use on the East Coast main line and generated interest from the Southeastern line for future upgrades, Hitachi officials added.
Loram will be demonstrating Loram Virtual Rail in Europe to help infrastructure owners use prescriptive maintenance digital twins to test maintenance strategies for extending rail infrastructure life and improving reliability, company officials said.
The patented digital twin software suite is part of the company’s strategy to more closely work with its railroad partners to ensure maintenance decisions are part of the overall asset management regimen, Loram officials said.
The digital twins create a virtual combination of the wheel-rail interaction, rail condition and economic data, and allow users to test different maintenance strategies, including target transversal profiles, reprofiling interval and depth of cut, friction management and material selection.
Users can quantify how each decision will impact rail life, damage risk and business case trade-offs before they implement changes in the field. The software is modular to allow users and their partners to input their own models, such as the rolling contact fatigue and squat damage models created by research and development teams at European infrastructure owners.
Once the maintenance scenarios are optimized, Loram’s series of scheduling tools can determine how to efficiently implement the maintenance strategy and automatically monitor IoT sensors of post-grind rail quality to ensure the strategy is being executed as planned — and that the benefits are achieved, company officials said.
Progress Rail offers a range of solutions designed to allow railroads to leverage operational data combined with advanced on- and off-board IoT technologies. Progress Rail’s parent company, Caterpillar, provides technology solutions to deliver value to locomotives, trains, track and the network as a whole, Progress Rail officials said.
Among these technologies is the Progress Rail Uptime™ suite, a comprehensive predictive analytics platform for condition-based locomotive maintenance. PR Uptime is designed to enable railroads to minimize unplanned downtime and improve asset utilization and reliability.
Advanced artificial intelligence models are utilized to monitor locomotive faults, operating parameters and environmental conditions in real-time, with detailed diagnostics, prognostics and repair recommendations outputs.
To be of value, predictive maintenance insights “must be directly actionable by railroad operations and shop maintenance personnel,” Progress Rail officials note. To that end, PR Uptime creates and delivers focused, step-by-step repair guides that highlight the specific component and exact fix required. The result: increased quality and speed of the repair, and a reduced timeline to train employees to achieve successful repairs, company officials said.
Also, the platform delivers scalable user access, detailed metrics and key performance indicators served via the Progress Rail digital portal or directly integrated to railroad systems.
TransmetriQ® is designed to eliminate rail visibility gaps with near-real-time tracking and tracing across more than 600 railroads in North America. Visibility direct from Railinc provides shipment status with actionable event reporting that allows for easy identification of problem cars and shipment exceptions, improved operations planning and fleet optimization, a bird’s-eye view of the entire shipment lifecycle, reduced blind spots and unexpected delays, and customized reporting and insights, company officials said.
Real-time, single-source customizable dashboards and/or alerting systems are supported by TransmetriQ technology that processes data from thousands of wayside detectors and onboard GPS sensors. This technology analyzes the flow of rail-car data combined with information about current network conditions and historical performance data, company officials said.
Supply-chain performance is optimized with shipment status information as soon as it’s available, and estimated arrival times are continuously updated if conditions change. The TransmetriQ platform provides unlimited customizable dashboards, alerting, shipment history and scheduled reports, company officials said. Integration includes electronic bills of lading, demurrage mitigation, QuickTrace immediate last-event information and rail-car health insights.
For shippers seeking data, Push API provides up-to-date movement and shipment information as soon as it’s available. When a new event happens, the API will immediately “push” the event information to a shipper’s system, company officials said.
If real-time visibility is not needed, RailSight Demand Trace provides on-demand as-needed visibility with three trace types: last event, new event and historical events.
The global freight-rail industry is undergoing a transformation with the growing adoption of long trains, with North America leading the way. Currently, about 50% of freight trains exceed 5,400 feet, and by 2034, 80% are projected to surpass 1.2 miles, according to Trilogical officials.
The company’s Long-Train Intelligence System© (LTIS) integrates the Control FREAK locomotive monitoring and diagnostics platform, RailBlazer rail-car telematics solution, proprietary mesh communication technology and a driver advisory application.
LTIS enhances operational performance and safety by providing real-time head-to-end visibility into the train’s integrity, location and health of all components, company officials said. Generating a virtual network throughout the train, LTIS delivers real-time alerts on locomotive functions, fuel consumption, speed limits and schedules, and addresses such rail-car issues as active handbrakes, abnormal impacts, vibrations and loading status.
Functioning as a digital auxiliary system, LTIS notifies the driver in real time about rail-car disconnections and end-of-train events.
LTIS’s analytics supports a shift to condition and mileage-based maintenance, minimizing disruptions, extending service intervals and cutting maintenance costs by up to 30%, company officials said.
In classification yards, LTIS provides track-level visibility, optimizing yard management and enhancing safety during coupling and loading operations.
The NEXSYS III-i is an advanced control system designed to enhance the traction, fuel efficiency, reliability and predictive maintenance of locomotives. The microprocessor-powered system integrates the latest technologies to offer advanced control options and performance improvements that significantly extend locomotive life, according to ZTR.
Locomotives equipped with NEXSYS III-i demonstrate improved adhesion by up to 44% on dry rails and 29% on wet rails; the system integrates ZTR’s SmartStart Automatic Engine Stop-Start, enabling annual fuel savings of up to 8,000 gallons per locomotive, company officials said.
NEXSYS III-i integrates with existing onboard networks and business systems, providing remote connectivity for real-time analytics on locomotive health, performance, location and diagnostics. The system delivers insights into fuel consumption, emissions, utilization, propulsion and starting performance, while also enabling predictive maintenance and remote troubleshooting.
With an intuitive Human-Machine Interface display, NEXSYS III-i is designed to empower operators with real-time locomotive data, control functions and system troubleshooting capabilities. Customizable and flexible, the system supports advanced applications and varied components.
The analytics and insights provided by NEXSYS III-i streamline maintenance planning, as well as enhance performance reporting and operational efficiency, ZTR officials said.
Michael Popke is a Madison, Wisconsin-based freelance writer. Email comments or questions to prograil@tradepress.com.
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