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9/15/2015

ENSCO Rail: Vehicle/Track Interaction Monitor

The ENSCO Rail Vehicle/Track Interaction Monitor (V/TI) is an autonomous monitoring system installed on locomotives to assess vehicle and track conditions. The V/TI uses accelerometers mounted on the carbody and suspension to continuously monitor and transmit events in near real time to the remote server.

V/TI Monitors have been used for more than 18 years to help increase safety and plan maintenance activities for Class Is, short lines and commuter railroads, ENSCO Rail officials said. Primarily, the V/TI identifies potentially dangerous track conditions associated with broken rail, battered joints or frogs, engine burns, track geometry and ballast or subgrade issues. Additionally, the V/TI identifies locomotive suspension component failures that result in rough ride conditions and truck hunting.

Paired with the V/TI Monitors is ENSCO Rail’s TrackIT® Web application, which is used to view the reported events. TrackIT automatically forwards events to the railroad’s in-house database or emails field personnel directly. Automated reports are also available to compare the condition of instrumented locomotives.

Since 2010, ENSCO Rail has been focused on V/TI data analytics to proactively identify at-risk conditions prior to failure. To that end, the company implemented an automated data analytics technique that can identify combinations of repeat track-caused events.

Although individual events were considered low severity on their own, it was discovered that in combination, they created elevated risk conditions, ENSCO Rail officials said. The automated algorithm provides a condensed and prioritized list of hazardous locations for field personnel to proactively resolve.