WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration has updated its 2023 safety advisory that encourages railroads to make better use of data from wayside hot-bearing detectors.
The second supplement to the advisory, issued in draft form on Friday, emphasizes the need for railroads to collect, analyze, and respond to data from hot-bearing detectors.
The advisory initially was issued in the aftermath of the Norfolk Southern hazardous materials wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, which was caused by the failure of a wheel bearing on a covered hopper car. Although grease from the bearing was on fire as it passed two detectors west of East Palestine, it did not trigger critical alarms that would have required the crew to stop and inspect the train. A third detector, on the outskirts of East Palestine, did issue a critical alarm but the train derailed moments later.
“This Safety Advisory reiterates FRA’s previous recommendations in Safety Advisory 2023-01 and its June 14, 2023, Supplement, and expands on the recommendations to incorporate the findings of FRA’s ongoing evaluations by emphasizing: the importance of trend analysis and the opportunity to integrate wayside detector data types to evaluate railcar health; the need to establish and follow appropriate processes in analyzing and responding to HBD data; the need for railroads to ensure that adequate staff are assigned to monitor and respond to wayside detector data; and the need for railroads to maximize the use of HBD data, including sharing wayside detector data between railroads, as a train travels from one railroad’s tracks to another railroad’s track,” the FRA said.
The Association of American Railroads notes that since the Feb. 3, 2023, East Palestine derailment the Class I systems have increased the frequency of hot-bearing detectors across key routes.
They also established a new industry standard of stopping and inspecting trains when an HBD reading exceeds 170°F. AAR rules implemented last July lowered the temperature threshold from 200°F to 170°F.
The AAR also reviewed carriers’ current trending analysis programs to develop uniform recommendations for proactively identifying bearings that may become problematic. In November railroads established a new, industry-wide trending analysis rule. It’s based on data from Railinc’s comprehensive analysis of 150 algorithms used by the Class I railroads to pinpoint the most effective algorithm for detecting problematic bearings.
