WASHINGTON — The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen is joining forces with rail tech company Hum Industrial Technology Inc. and the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Railway Safety, to research and develop technology to enhance wheel bearing condition monitoring. The project will integrate railcar sensors with wayside infrastructure capable of transmitting wheel bearing conditions to train crews and railroad dispatchers in real time.
The union received a $9.6 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant program last month to move the project forward.
Byron Porter, CEO of Hum, tells Trains News Wire the project’s purpose is to enhance wayside monitoring by adding information from onboard bearing monitoring sensors into the existing wayside communication systems. This will provide railroads with direct access to more accurate condition data. The tech will expand the capabilities of wayside signal infrastructure maintained and designed by the union’s workers.
“The project will develop a wayside receiver that will be installed in existing wayside bungalows by [the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen]. The receiver will be able to collect nearby sensor data from sensors mounted directly to railcars. Critical data will then be transmitted directly to the [locomotive] cab, the dispatch desk, or interlock with the PTC system,” says Porter.
The sensors capture vibration and temperature analysis and are designed to inform railroaders of bearing issues before they become critical. While the current focus is on bearing condition, Porter says additional sensor data can be utilized using the same communication path in the future.
The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Railway Safety says the technology designed from this initiative will allow railroads to identify and detect failures before catastrophic events occur, even when railcars are in service. Some $4 million of the grant was earmarked to the university to implement the technology.
Justin Pier, a communications representative for the union, declined to provide additional specifics, but noted the union’s role is to oversee the project and ensure benchmarks are met, while also contributing as subject matter experts in railroad signaling, safety, and efficiency.
Hum Industrial Technology Inc., develops various types of railcar sensors designed to monitor the condition of railcar hardware and safety appliances. The tech company also develops solar-powered GPS trackers for railcar monitoring.
