• CN continues to combat open access on its western Canadian grain lines (4/2/2001)

Lubricurve™ Electro 20 Lubricator

L.B. Foster Company

L.B. Foster recently expanded its product offerings by introducing to the North American railway market its Lubricurve™ Electro 20 Electric Rail Lubricator equipped with a sophisticated telemetry system. The heart of this system is a two-way communications package that is installed inside the lubricator. Communications directly with the lubricator are achieved via cellular telephone, satellite telephone or direct line hookup through a railroad’s existing communications network, such as a fiber optic line. The lubricator system itself contains sensors for monitoring a number of critical attributes, such as grease level, battery charging status, grease pump operation, door status, weather, air temperature, rail temperature and enabling status. This information is stored in a data logger and transmitted to a server at regular intervals where it can be accessed via the Internet.

The benefits of telemetry Lubricurve™ Electro 20 Electric Rail Lubricator include:

• As all critical information is posted in real time to a web site, remote monitoring of the lubricator unit can be accomplished without the necessity of on-site inspections, saving time and money.
• The unit can be turned on and off remotely as needed for maintenance of track such as passage of rail detector cars and rail grinding.
• Alerts are provide for situations requiring immediate attention via text messaging or email. These conditions are also indicated in red on the web page.
• Predictive grease maintenance is accomplished through an algorithm, based on live data from each lubricator that generates a “Weeks to Empty” indication.
• Due to the advance warnings that are provided, most lubricator problems can be rectified before any rail deterioration occurs.

L.B. Foster's newest manufacturing site in Pueblo, CO complements in an already existing plant at Niles, OH and gives the company national production and distribution capabilities.