Extreme cold doesn’t have to have an extreme effect on railroad operations and maintenance. As published in the August 2018 issue of Railway Age, following are several examples of how the supply industry has warmed up to the task.
A pilot project utilizing advanced analytics software from GE Transportation is under way at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., the busiest port complex in North America. Designed to improve container movements at three of the port’s six container terminals—Long Beach Container Terminal, Total Terminals International and International Transportation Service—the two-month project incorporates GE’s Port Optimizer™ software to access data to move containers more efficiently.
The Railway Association of Canada (RAC) on Aug. 8 announced the winners of its annual Safety Awards, which recognize RAC member-companies’ initiatives “that help to ensure our country’s rail network remains among the safest in the world.” Canadian Pacific, VIA Rail, Cando Rail Services and Genesee & Wyoming received awards for their “outstanding safety leadership” in 2018. Winners will receive their awards at an RAC ceremony in November.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has approved Railroad Software’s TrackAsset application for electronic capture of signal inspections, as outlined in FRA 49 CFR §§ 234.273 and 236.110. TrackAsset “provides visibility for signal maintainers and maintenance-of-way employees to easily track upcoming inspections and generate work orders to complete them,” the company says.
In a Bentley Systems On-Demand Tech Talk, rail and transit expert Taylor Gilmore discusses how Bentley’s OpenRail Asset Reliability Transit Facility Condition Assessment tools can help transit agencies achieve a state of good repair (SGR) and comply with the Federal Transit Administration’s Transit Facility Condition Assessment requirements.
Bentley Systems’ OpenRail ConceptStation allows users to “conceptualize and analyze design options for rail and transit in a matter of minutes, not days. Rapidly create conceptual track designs, including rail geometry, electrification, tunnels, and bridges, while ensuring design principles.”
Railways are harvesting increasing volumes of data on the performance of their assets. But converting raw data into meaningful insights remains a challenge for many industry organizations. At the May 29 Rise of IoT and Big Data in Rail conference in Munich, organized by Rotaia Media, suppliers, tech companies, train operators and infrastructure managers described how they are harnessing the power of data through advanced asset management systems.
The emerging role of Data Science, commonly known as “Big Data” in railroad maintenance, was discussed earlier in Railway Age (“Better Railroading Through Big Data.”) As noted, railroads are developing and implementing new generations of sophisticated inspection and monitoring systems, and as a result are finding themselves collecting large volumes of data.
Bentley Systems Inc. has acquired London-based Synchro Software Ltd., a developer of 4D construction modeling software for scheduling and project management. Synchro, known as “construction’s time machine,” has been globally adopted, in particular, for building and civil infrastructure projects.
GE Transportation, in the midst of its acquisition by Wabtec Corp., is introducing new capabilities and features to its EdgeLINC™ Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform, “extending its scalability, device support and deployment options.”
