Railway Equipment Co. Showcases New Tech

Written by Andrew Corselli
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Railway Equipment Company Electrical Engineer Jason Honeck. All photos: Andrew Corselli.

RAILWAY AGE at RAILWAY INTERCHANGE 2019: Railway Equipment Co. displayed the prototype of its Automated Grade Crossing Test system, as well as its 12-inch LED Flasher With Light Out Detection.

The Automated Grade Crossing Test system, which the company said would begin a pilot program with railroad customers in early 2020, aims to allow railroads to perform grade crossing inspections remotely or on-site, sans the need to remove the crossing from service.

In addition, the test:

  • Monitors and records: all lights working; gate arm position; battery cell voltages while under load without power from the charger; and flasher and lamps perpendicular to the roadway.
  • Has programmable settings with hopes of allowing for adjustment of length of test and load placed on batteries.
  • Will immediately stop upon test time expired, crossing activation, low battery levels and fault detected.
  • Has local storage capacity for more than one year’s worth of test data.
  • Information can be fed on-demand to railroads’ central system via SNMP.

Railway Equipment Co.’s 12-inch Flasher With Light Out Detection is an LED replacement for incandescent crossing flashers with one LED per side and adjustable illumination levels. If lights go out on the LED board, it alerts the railroad about the failure.

In addition, it features:

  • Directional detection to ensure the flasher is perpendicular to roadway.
  • Integration with automated crossing test systems.
  • A lower rush current to prevent premature relay failures.
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