• Train control: Conrail-NS-CSX enter next phase of interoperability effort (February 1998)

• TriMet Seeks Manager, Rail Engineering

2/26/2016

Lat-Lon: Connected Rail Yard software

Lat-Lon, a BSM Company, has created the Connected Rail Yard software system that uses sensor data to give yard managers a comprehensive view of their yards to enhance safety and increase productivity. On-screen with icons represent everything from crew location to switch positions, while sensors monitor locomotives, rail cars, MOW, vehicles , switches, foul points, blue flag, fixed derail, and personnel. Mesh networking technology makes it possible to have hundreds of reporting points throughout a yard. Sensors installed on fixed objects within the yard pass data along like a bucket brigade, creating a network with multiple paths to an access point. The Solar-Powered Access Point Unit (AP) contains a modem which then uploads the data to secure servers and train dispatcher screens. This means fewer modems are needed while gathering more data, the company says.

Moving equipment and personnel can also be tracked on-screen. Through individual sensors carried on-person, a running-man image appears, offering proximity awareness and increased productivity. In addition, stand-alone Lat-Lon reporting units, Locomotive Monitoring Units, Solar-Powered Tracking Units, or Equipment Monitoring Units are incorporated upon entering the yard.

Connected Rail Yard software generates two large-screen displays. A custom Tracks screen shows a schematic of the yard with all fixed assets as icons in the normal, diverting position, or unknown status. The second Real-Time screen provides a satellite image of the yard with all moving assets represented as icons. Four smaller reporting screens can be included on the satellite monitor: all moving asset alerts, weather updates, and two zoom-in images.