Conrail's integrated automated wayside inspection

Wayside detector devices, over the years, have proven to be valuable assets to a railroad in enhancing safety and improving efficiencies. Currently, devices such as hot box detectors, dragging equipment detectors, high car detectors, wheel impact detectors have routinely prevented accidents or damages from occurring. With the advent of electronics in terms of its sophistication, capability, cost and miniaturization, a lot of interest arose to wayside devices to further improve efficiencies and reduce manual inspection requirements of freight car components. The integration of these devices between each other and their integration into the railroad maintenance system increase the potential for efficiency gains. At this juncture, Conrail has re-examined the usage of electronics and has advanced the use of technology in fault detection of freight car components. This paper gives an account of freight car failure detection devices which are currently available in service and which are being developed in 1998. Conrail's integration of some of the devices and the automation of reporting the faults and rerouting of defective cars is also presented.