(The following report appeared on the Association of American Railroads’ website on August 6.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The nation’s freight railroads have announced an initiative that will use innovative trackside technology to improve safety and efficiency on the rail network by giving freight car owners advance warning when freight car wheels are deteriorating.
Through a series of proposed changes to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Interchange Rules, it is anticipated that the new Advanced Technology Safety Initiative (ATSI) will be implemented on October 1, 2004.
“Safety and network efficiency go hand in hand in the railroad industry,” said Robert VanderClute, AAR Senior Vice President-Safety and Operations. “ATSI gives us a tool to prevent accidents and thereby improve the efficiency of railroad operations.”
To explain how the system will work and answer questions, the AAR will sponsor a Town Hall meeting near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport for all stakeholders in the AAR Car Repair Billing and Interchange system, including railroads, private car owners, leasing companies, contract repair companies and suppliers. That meeting will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. August 11 at the DoubleTree Hotel O’Hare in Rosemont, Ill.
ATSI is a predictive and proactive maintenance system that uses the best available technology to detect and report potential safety problems and poorly performing equipment before they result in accidents or undue rail damage.
The first effort under the new initiative is the use of data from wheel impact load detectors (WILD) to monitor the health of railcar wheels. When a freight car wheel exerts a peak impact load of 90 kips or above as measured by a WILD site, it is not operating effectively, is considered “out of round” and on the path to failure.
The program provides a window of opportunity that opens when a wheel reaches a peak impact load of 65 kips.
“This gives car owners a chance to schedule the wheel replacement and continue the car in service with as little disruption as practical,” said Lisa Stabler, Assistant Vice President Quality & Reliability Engineering of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. “It gives private car owners and handling lines new responsibilities and options to plan repairs and maintain equipment, allowing all parties to take an active role in the continued success of the freight rail industry.”
Once the car owner is notified of the problem, it can arrange with the handling carrier to fix the problem or request that the car be moved to another location for repairs.
The technology being used has been in existence for 20 years and has been validated through research. There are currently 67 WILD sites in the rail network and data collected at those sites is integrated into rail industry equipment health management systems.