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NS to conduct continuous rail testing trial on Chicago Line
I was somewhat misled by the headline’s use of the word “continuous”. I expected that meant something like daily, which would indeed be a game changer. Instead it turned out that it was every month to a month and a half.
As I remember the process, and that may have changed in the past decade or two, when the testing vehicle detected a possible flaw they immediately confirmed it and all subsequent trains restricted as required. With this new procedure it seems to me that there will likely be a gap between detection of the flaw by the vehicle and the analysis of the data back in the office. Ideally it may only be overnight but it could be several days. Much can happen in that interval, including the flaw developing into a broken rail under a train.
The big advantage to operations is that during that interval trains can continue to run at track speed, in blessed ignorance of any potential flaw. Operating folks hate slow orders that slow and delay scheduled trains.
JS,
My definition of continuous was more stringent than yours.
And the process of detected flaw, confirm, then restrict as required train moves immediately, .
until the flaw was eliminated… Immediate correction!
That was the proper procedure…
.Mr. Sutherland,
Your last paragraph displays the risk, extreme, and the “who gives a ____” attitude!
Actually, this would be a game changer, in that the inspection vehicle would not tie up the track during the inspection process. My father-in-law was a track supervisor and he would tell you that the rail inspection car basically tied up the entire railroad because of the need to stop and reinspect each perceived defect by a hand inspection. The number of false defects was very high, and it sounds like this process has a way to sort those. It would seem that if they wanted, they could be reading the data in real time even at a remote location, and then have someone following along that same day for the follow-up inspections on the ROW, but not necessarily on the rail itself. Much better traffic flow.
“Continuous” means no skips or areas not tested. This is the way that the FRA uses the term for the rail inspection process. Any skips or rail not tested (an example is a parked train that the equipment runs around) is considered to be a section and must be inspected before the required interval or slowed to the maximum speed where testing is not required.
All track with freight trains speeds above 25mph must be tested, but the frequency varies by several complicated factors, such as passenger trains and haz-mat volumes. Then, each potential defect must be checked and confirmed. As Dennis Jeffries says, the traditional way was to stop the vehicle, get out and hand check, and then move along again. What the FRA is allowing NS to do is to test without stopping and then use a chase vehicle to follow and hand test later - establishing priorities of where to head to first. This has become a method used and approved elsewhere, but done before a train passes. It looks like the difference is that normally the second vehicle is right behind the testing vehicle, but this will allow hand testing to be done a bit later. The track safety standards actually already allows this for confirmed defects if approved by someone with a year of experience as who is designated under 49 CFR, Part 213.7a, with some requiring slow ordering, the placing of bars on the rail, etc., based upon the defect type and size.
While a seemingly small change, it is actually fairly significant as compared to the currently required response process, but one that COULD result in less train delay on very busy routes.