Our client, based in the USA, needed support with condition based maintenance on their freight railroad operation.
Read about the issues we worked to solve, how our technology helped and the results.
At a Glance
- We supply points condition monitoring to a Class I freight railroad operator in Eastern USA.
- The continual, agile development of our Centrix data platform has ensured that the operator has been able to automate detection of issues on Points machines.
- The application of automated alarm threshold settings, as well as tagging traces with their suspected fault cause has allowed the operator to implement condition based maintenance. There have been significant financial savings and improved staff safety.
The Challenges
USA railroad infrastructure
Railroad infrastructure in the USA is used by a significant level of heavy freight trains. It is often located at geographically remote locations. This makes regular maintenance inspections expensive and challenging, despite them being very necessary.
Common points failures
The most common source of failure within the signalling and rail systems are points failures.
Required user knowledge
Using remote condition monitoring of points systems meant that issues could be identified prior to them having a significant impact on the railroads. However, the setting of alert levels, and the interpretation of alert meanings, required user knowledge and time.