Watch: BNSF Brake Health Pilot Program

“With thermal detector technology, we can gather more data about the health of brakes on a moving train than can be collected from a visual inspection,” BNSF EVP and COO Matt Igoe reported.

BNSF is conducting a pilot safety program approved by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to evaluate the effectiveness of thermal detector technology for monitoring brake health.

“With thermal detector technology, we can gather more data about the health of brakes on a moving train than can be collected from a visual inspection,” BNSF Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Matt Igoe reported. “It’s another part of the way BNSF continues to push the operation to be safer, more reliable, and more efficient for our customers.”

In the video below, Igoe speaks with BNSF Vice President Mechanical Gary Grissum about the program’s results so far.

Further Reading:

CEO PERSPECTIVE: Leveraging Advanced Technologies, by Katie Farmer, President and CEO, BNSF Railway
Machine Vision: You CAN Fix What You Can’t See

In other developments, BNSF recently filed a Petition for Review with the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, naming the FRA, FRA Administrator Amit Bose and the USDOT, of the FRA’s March 21, 2022 order denying BNSF’s request “to expand an existing waiver of certain requirements of 49 C.F.R. § 213.233 to permit BNSF to broaden its implementation of automated track inspection technologies.”