Norfolk Southern has cleared the way for more double-stack intermodal trains to use its Heartland Corridor with the opening this week of a newly improved double-stack rail line between Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. The Heartland Connector will reduce transit times by one to two days and increase service reliability for double-stack freight traveling to and from the Port of Virginia and Cincinnati and Detroit.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a grant of $3.5 million to a multi-university consortium led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a rail transportation and engineering research center.
Canadian Pacific entered into an agreement with Canadian Tire Corporation Limited, which extends to early 2017 and awards the railway with the vast majority of Canadian Tire’s domestic container traffic.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved authorization from the Ohio Rail Development Commission, directing CSX, Norfolk Southern and Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway to install flashing lights and gates at grade crossings in Delaware, Jefferson and Lorain counties, respectively.
Canadian Pacific says that part of the company’s multi-year plan is to invest between $1.1 billion (US$1.085 billion) and $1.2 billion (US$1.18 billion) for infrastructure renewal, network enhancements and expansion projects in 2012. The 2012 Capital Plan will focus on strategic and targeted investments to improve service and increase network capacity while funding business development and initiatives with rapid return on investment.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called on CSX, Amtrak, the New York Department of Transportation and Federal Railway Administration to quickly complete a plan for the construction of the high-speed rail line from Buffalo to Albany, N.Y., that is set to begin in Genesee County. Schumer helped secure $58 million in federal funds to construct the first part of the high-speed rail line in Western New York, but the money cannot begin flowing to the project until the parties complete service, construction and maintenance agreements.
Mercuria Energy Trading, Inc., based in Chicago, has developed a terminal to ship crude oil on the Panhandle Northern Railway, which operates on 31 miles of track between the towns of Panhandle and Borger, Texas.
RailComm upgraded its existing yard system at BNSF Corwith’s mechanical facility in Chicago, Ill. RailComm’s Domain Operations Controller System is used to remotely control derails.
Members of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Blacksmiths, Iron Ship Builders, Forgers and Helpers; the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association have ratified new contracts with the nation’s largest freight railroads.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued two safety recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration related to five rear-end collisions in which crewmembers failed to operate their trains at the required restricted speed.
When Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Irene rode along the East Coast of the United States in late August 2011, reactions to the damage ranged from shocking in the southeast to bullet dodging in New York City. By the time the storm blasted into Vermont on Aug. 28-29, 2011, winds had died down, but the amount of rain that fell unleashed some of the worst flooding the state had experienced in decades. For Vermont Rail System and New England Central Railroad, the storm left the shortlines with track sections hanging in mid air, compromised bridges and shut down both railroads for close to three weeks.
While it’s not unusual for hurricanes and tropical storms to affect the New England Central, according to Charles Hunter assistant vice president of government affairs for RailAmerica, which owns and operates the NECR, the south end of the system located in Connecticut and Massachusetts has been the focus of storms over the past 10 years. In order to prepare for Irene’s impact, Hunter says NECR halted both freight and Amtrak passenger operations prior to Irene’s arrival.
Over on Vermont Rail System, employees were on standby the day of Irene’s arrival. Charlie Lemieux, VRS superintendent of maintenance-of-way, described the preparation as a bit of a waiting game to see what the storm would do. VRS ran patrols in front of trains until waters became overwhelming, operations stopped and employees were pulled off the line for safety.
“As far as any other prep work, there wasn’t much to do until the storm left and we saw what we were dealing with,” said Lemieux.
Both railroads were left to deal with extensive damage. Between the two railroads, there were close to 150 washouts, six compromised bridges and nearly 35 miles of track that had been destroyed.
“NECR had washed out road bed with the rails and ties suspended in mid air, we had bank slides as deep as 50 feet below where the track use to be, mud slides and trees came down over the right-of-way and, while we did not lose any bridges, we had some bridges where the head walls and the piers were affected,” said Hunter.
Lemieux said the Green Mountain Railroad (GMRC), part of VRS, received the worst damage between Rutland, Vt., and Bellows Falls, Vt., where a few bridges were off their abutments and more bridges were lost between Rutland and Hoosick Junction, N.Y.
“We had approximately six miles of track that was totally undermined and washed out and we had at least 15 miles of track that was underwater that we could not access until the water subsided,” said Lemieux.
Once the water receded, Lemieux said only seven miles of track out of the 15 were a total loss and the rest of the damage consisted of superficial washes.
For NECR, the damage was especially painful to discover as the shortline was in the middle of a large improvement project for Amtrak’s Vermonter line. The high-speed rail improvements had just been completed about a month before Irene’s arrival and included installation of continuously welded rail, new crossties, highway-rail grade crossing safety improvements and other track improvements.
“The low point was assessing all the damage, that was pretty depressing,” said Rick Boucher, assistant general manager for NECR, “Especially after a large project where everything had looked so good and then basically, overnight was destroyed.”
“We had brand new cwr hanging in mid air,” said Hunter, “The good news is that because we had installed the rail and installed new ties or re-spiked the ties we were keeping, most of the elements stayed intact even though they were hanging in mid air.”
Post storm, both railroads were shutdown to thru traffic. VRS required an assessment by helicopter after the storm and determined priority to be opening the Green Mountain Gateway between Rutland and Bellows Falls. NECR divided the repair effort into four zones, a plan developed by RailAmerica’s director of structures Bill Riehl and director of engineering Ron Marshall after they completed an on-site assessment of the damage. The worst, zone 3, located in the Roxbury and Braintree Vt., area also dubbed the Red Zone. Work began in zones 1 and 4 and progressed toward the Red Zone.
“We worked toward the Red Zone because we knew access to it would be difficult,” said Boucher. “The plan was to attack [the damage] from each end with the anticipation that by the time we got to the Red Zone, some of the roads would be opened up enough that we could begin to truck some material in and we could bring material in by rail as well, if we had zones 1, 2 and 4 done.”
Access problems due to many roads in Vermont having been washed out by the storm were an issue for both NECR and VRS.
“With anything of this magnitude, there will always be little quirks that will happen along the line that we try to overcome,” said Lemieux. “The biggest one was trying to get the aggregate material to the different locations. A lot of locations were not road accessible and the roads were washed out. It was difficult to get the material to the job sites where it needed to be.”
“We had to actually construct roads to reach our right-of-way to conduct repairs,” said Hunter. “We worked with the local farmers and land owners to get their permission to build roads into those areas and everyone was great to work with. Vermont Agency of Transportation issued a 30-day suspension of environmental permitting for railroad repairs and road repairs, so we were able to get in to do the necessary repairs without the permitting process.”
Once access issues were resolved, the real repair work began and on VRS, bridge repair was a focus.
“On the GMRC there was no traffic because we had a bridge in Proctorsville, Vt., that was off it’s abutment and one in Arlington, Vt., and there were no trains running until we got all bridges safe to run over,” said Lemieux. “One particular contractor that was outstanding was Engineers Construction, Inc., they did a wonderful job for us. We had them concentrating on bridges. Some of the abutments were gone and one bridge, 114, was at a tilt of about 30 some odd degrees.”
Lemieux said that in order to repair the bridge, which was recently completed, the contractors drove pilings down and made a new bridge seat. Heavy-duty cranes were brought in to move the bridge onto temporary pilings so traffic could travel over it before final repairs could be made and the structure was placed on new bridge seats.
NECR had to deal with a lot of holes left by washouts. Dealing with larger holes threatened the shortline’s aggressive recovery schedule.
“At one point, we thought we were falling behind, but once we got through a few critical areas, we made up time,” said Boucher. “We had one area with three large holes, basically a whole curve was just gone with one section of track left in the middle, but the track itself was over a bank and there was just subgrade left. Three large holes had nothing, no subgrade everything was gone. We had to start from the bottom. Some of those holes were 25-30 feet deep and they ranged from five to 800 feet long.”
Boucher also notes the NECR’s bridge contractors, Osmose Railroad Service, Inc., and Engineers Construction, Inc., were responsible for keeping to the repair schedule.
“Initially, we thought it would be Sept. 23 before the bridge work would be completed. Those contractors did a heck of a job to beat their own initial estimates also,” said Boucher.
The shortlines were not alone in their recovery effort. Aid came from the region’s other shortlines, contractors and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. ASLRRA put out an All Points Bulletin for dump cars and both the NECR and VRS said they received a good response from neighboring railroads.
“Railroads are an interesting industry in that not only do we compete with each other but we also cooperate with each other for certain freight movements,” said Hunter. “Generally speaking, the railroads in New England are very response-oriented. When somebody has a problem, the other railroads will help you out.”
It took three weeks for both shortlines to transition between storm-ravaged to back in business. VRS dumped 60,000 tons of rip rap and on the NECR, 15,000 tons of ballast was dumped, 12,500 feet of damaged right-of-way was repaired and all but a small section of new cwr was able to be placed back into service.
Lemieux and the rest of the VRS team were happy with the accomplishment of a quick and thorough recovery effort.
“We had many meetings on it and we came up with a date that we wanted to hit, it could have been a long shot, but that’s what we wanted, we are very proud that we were able to do that,” said Lemieux. “We dealt with a lot of little issues, but the main motivator was that our customers were not receiving their commodities. We were very much customer-oriented to get us up and going because once we’re going, we can help Vermont get up on its feet.”
The engineering department at NECR originally aimed for the railroad to be back in service on Sept. 23. The first train was run on the entire line on Sept. 20, three days ahead of the goal.
“It was a collective effort by everyone, good planning, a lot of support and cooperation from the contractors,” said Boucher. “As we got into that Red Zone, things started going faster than anticipated. We thought we were really going to struggle with accessibility and the repairs actually went a lot quicker than we thought.”
For their efforts to recover from Irene, both railroads were awarded the Herb Ogden Award for Rail Advocacy from the Vermont Rail Action Network.
The last piece of the puzzle is to figure out how to cover the multi-million dollar price tag associated with Irene’s damage. Because Vermont owns the line VRS operates on, the repair effort is eligible for FEMA funds. However, NECR, as a privately owned entity is not eligible, leaving only the Federal Railroad Administration’s Disaster Relief Fund for financial aid.
“There is no money in that fund,” said Hunter. “We’re trying to get that funded, which would not only help our railroad but other railroads in the northeast that sustained damage.”
Waiting around for monetary relief is not something either railroad is doing, as they are both still involved in Vermont’s continued recovery. The state’s highways did not recover as fast as the rail lines. Both shortlines are involved in the running of aggregate to help repair the state’s road network.
Weeds, plants and other undergrowth are Mother Nature’s little annoyances to the railroads. Vegetation management crews are constantly out on-track, off-track and now even up in the air, fighting the battle for a clear right-of-way. There have been many improvements in herbicide mixes and machines to help keep ground bare, including a new system called Chlorovision.
One challenge in particular for vegetation management crews is fighting for track time to get the job done, that’s why All Railroad Services Corp. takes the work off-track.
Vinnie Vaccarello, co-president of ARS Corp., notes that the company is consistently asked to find ways to do vegetation control off-track, since track time is always a premium. To aid in the time constraint battle, ARS Corp. looks to incorporate vegetation control in other services it provides to maximize track time.
Vaccarello says railroads defer vegetation management and it gets out of control; however, railroads are starting to learn that an aggressive maintenance program saves money in the long run.
Asplundh Railroad Division now offers its Aerial Tree Trimmer, an airborne trimmer, which does not require track time to perform trimming operations. It’s capable of working in rugged or swampy areas where ground crews have limited access to the right-of-way. Heavy overhanging brush is easily removed by the 10-blade saw cluster, leaving a ground to sky view. The Aerial Trimmer is also capable of providing chemical side trimming.
The company is currently working with Perceptive Robotics to develop a system called Chlorovision, which is currently in use. Using new vegetation identification technology, the Chlorovision system identifies vegetation in the treatment zone with pinpoint accuracy and automatically controls the application equipment to precisely treat only the targeted vegetation at speeds up to 50 mph. To learn more about Cholorovision, please see page 26.
Drift control is and always will be a major concern for railroad vegetation control applicator companies, notes Shane Boatright, president of Boatright Companies.
“It can have a tremendous impact on your insurance premiums in the event you have a claim due to allowing your chemical product to drift off the target area on to a landowner’s property along the railroad,” he explained. “We use a variety of drift control agents to avoid these problems and the weather each day dictates what and how much we need in a tank mix. Wind is not your friend in this business.”
Boatright says he is happy to see that with budget cut backs during this tough economy, the shortline railroad customers continue to spray their railroads each year.
“We encourage that simply because skipping a year of vegetation control spraying on your railroad can be very expensive in the long run,” he said. “Spraying something is far better than nothing in a railroad’s continuing efforts to control the brush and vegetation growing along their railroad each year.”
Brandt Rail Services is a U.S.-based service contract arm of Brandt Road Rail Inc. BRS provides the Brandt family of railroad maintenance-of-way products packaged in a service plan for its customers. BRS provides a self-powered excavator package, Brandt Rail Tool, that comes with a 52-inch brush cutting head. This head is powered by a dedicated power source so the operation is able to handle heavy brush cutting with no loss in motive or braking power.
“Our service plans include providing a grapple, a bucket and the heavy-duty brush cutting head,” said Steve Orrell, vice president rail services at BRS. “If heavy brush, refuse or timber products need removing from the same remote sight, the Brandt Rail Tool can pull up to two air dumps or gondolas for hauling away all types of material. No other brush-cutting platform can pull its own cars if heavy clearing is needed.”
“The single largest challenge in our industry today is the continued development of herbicide-resistant weed species,” said Wayne Hug, vice president railroad division at DeAngelo Brothers Inc.
“One key contributing factor to this problem is the fact that our industry has gone several years without much new product development, so our control options have been limited,” he explained. “Roughly 10 years ago, a lot of brand name product patents began to expire; that created huge expansion opportunities for the generic market. As costs for generic products came down, control of certain species became more difficult because the chemistry at hand had already been heavily used for several years. The end result is many of the products that effectively controlled challenging species just a few years ago now have almost no effect on our most difficult challenges such as kochia, sprangle top and even crab grass. While the old chemistry still effectively controls 80 percent to 90 percent of the weed and grass species we encounter and it is still needed, it effectively eliminates competition for other, more difficult to control species and those species populations are increasing at rapid rates.”
The company’s challenge with chemical-resistant weed species is comparable to the challenges humans are encountering today with “Super Bugs” (infections) and the lack of new, effective antibiotics to control them, notes Hug.
Dow AgroScience’s aminopyralid-based products are relatively new to the market. These include Milestone®, Capstone® and Opensight® specialty herbicides. The active ingredient, aminopyralid, provides systemic control of target species, such as marestail and many other tough-to-control broadleaf weeds. It also is said to have a favorable environmental profile and Milestone was registered under the Reduced Risk Pesticide Initiative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Resistance is no stranger to vegetation management crews.
“In 1990, you may have been able to treat an acre with five pounds of herbicide and get 80 percent control,” explained Homer Deckard, railroad IVM specialist for Dow AgroSciences. “Then, in 2000, maybe it moved to seven pounds of herbicide to get 70 percent control. Now, you could be looking at 10 pounds of herbicide to get 50 percent control.
Deckard says the resistance has become so specialized that you can’t just add more herbicide to achieve that same control. One has to consider adding additional herbicides with different modes-of-action to traditional mixes to address one or two resistant weeds.
“We are really at a tipping point,” he said. “If we don’t work as an industry to address resistance, our railway track and structures will be overtaken by resistant ‘super weeds’ like marestail, kochia, pigweed and others.”
Harvey Holt, professor emeritus, Department of Forestry & Natural Resources at Purdue University notes that kochia, an annual broadleaf weed, occurs in almost every state and province in the U.S. and Canada.
“It also has the distinction of having plants resistant to multiple herbicide modes-of-action,” he explained.
A test of herbicide treatments containing newly-registered products, as well as industry standards was established April 4, 2011, near Yakima, Wash., to a site had not been treated in 2010. The following combinations of registered herbicides resulted in more than 90 percent bare ground, 159 days after treatment:
• Esplanade 5 oz + Perspective 4.75 oz + Razor 2 qt +R-11 ¼ percent
• Esplanade 5 oz + Perspective 7.5 oz + Razor 2 qt + R-11 ¼ percent
• Method 6 oz + Matrix 3 oz + Razor 1 qt + R-11 ¼ percent
• Method 4 oz + Hyvar 2 lb + Razor 1 qt + R-11 ¼ percent
Each year presents its own unique challenges as more weeds develop resistance to popular chemical active ingredients and customers demand better control, explains Craig Mercier, president and CEO of MERCIER’S, Inc.
“By partnering with Alligare, LLC, the nation’s largest vegetation control chemical supplier, MERCIER’S, Inc., has isolated the best chemical active ingredients, creating sound herbicide mixes that provide unmatched weed control,” Mercier said. “The key to having chemical choices in the years to come is to not cut corners by applying at a reduced rate.”
Though many companies have experienced challenging times, Mercier says MERCIER’S, Inc. has had much success.
“Our greatest asset we bring to any customer for any job can be summed up in one word: integrity. If we always strive for the highest mark, then our business will continue to grow expedientially,” he explained.
Nufarm Americas Inc. launched a new product, Aquasweep, that contains the active ingredients 24-D triclopyr. It is the first combination product to be launched that contains aquatic use sites. The product is said to perform well on broadleaf weeds, brush and vines.
The EPA is no longer accepting label verbiage as “non crop” use sites, notes George Telesz, regional sales manager at Nufarm.
“Each application site must be specifically defined. Railroad applicators need to be aware of these changes to be in compliance with labeled use sites. As labels are updated by manufacturers the updates are being added. Some agricultural products may not be acceptable in the railroad market in the future.”
In the Midwest, high plains and west resistance management continues to challenge applicators, Telesz explained.
“Rotational herbicides needs to be considered to break the chain of over using the same product year after year,” he said.
Kershaw, a Division of Progress Rail Services Inc., has recently introduced the new generation Two Sky Trim. The Sky Trim is a high-production mechanical tree trimmer that is capable of trimming tree limbs up to a height of 75 feet, a faster rate than was previously possible, says Kershaw. The Sky Trim can be fitted with rail gear when used on rail right-of-way. This all-terrain machine is powered by a 127 hp Caterpillar engine and utilizes heavy-duty Caterpillar axles. The operator’s cab is said to offer exceptional visibility and comfort and is industry-certified for roll over and falling objects protection.
The company also developed a new high-production brush cutter, the Klearway Model 500. This machine is capable of cutting and mulching heavy brush and trees up to 12 inches in diameter.
“The machine is growing in popularity because of its maneuverability and high production on all types of terrain,” noted Mike Balkom, national sales manager utility equipment at Kershaw.
The unit is powered by a hp Caterpillar 200 engine and has power to spare when clearing heavy brush. The Klearway’s mulching attachment allows for safe operation when cutting near crossings as the front-mounted drum mulcher minimizes the possibility of projectiles being thrown while cutting. The cab offers operator comfort with great visibility and is industry certified for roll over protection.
“For 2012, we will be introducing an all-terrain carrier for bucket lifts and herbicide spraying equipment,” said Balkom.
The requests Rail Construction Equipment Co. receives are for versatility in products to handle vegetation requirements. RCE has developed a new on-track brush cutter that it says provides improved cutting ability and meets all tier 4 emission requirements.
RCE has been developing new attachments to handle brush cutting to add to its on-track and conventional off-track machines. For example, more cutter heads for RCE’s high-rail excavators and tie cranes.
“The economy has had some affect on this market, however, we are seeing an increase in the demand for the renting of this equipment,” noted Dennis Hanke, railroad specialist for RCE.
The Tiger WetCutTM from Robolube Industries, Inc., helps control unwanted vegetation with a systemic control system. The herbicide is applied directly after the cut, ensuring positive and complete application of the herbicide to the vegetation. It allows for spot spraying or continuous operation and can be used with rotary or flail cutters.
“A wide variety of herbicides can be applied,” noted Bob Pieper, president of Robolube Industries, Inc. “Most of our customers have been asking for a larger truck with the ability to cut at 28 ft. to 30 ft. from centerline of track. We all want to do more with the equipment that we have to justify the expense and cost of operation.”
The Tiger RailKutTM provides on-and off-track vegetation control. Tiger transforms a Ford F-550 truck into a 21-foot reach boom-type mower that will handle trees up to six inches in diameter with its rotary head. Tiger also offers a quick, interchangeable cold air blower that allows the RailKut to increase its utilization in the winter months for blowing snow and debris from switches and other areas that can be problematic.
Musket Corp. will establish a crude-oil export terminal within the Great Western Industrial Park in Colorado on a newly constructed loop track on the Great Western Railway. Due to the abundance of existing infrastructure, the site is easily scalable beyond the initial loading capacity of 5.8 million barrels per year.
Research and development departments continue to drive advancements in rail-flaw detection technologies and methods. Railroads want to find smaller and smaller defects but they also need a total assessment of rail health.
Herzog Services, Inc. (HSI), has seen continued growth over the 2011 calendar year with the addition of another Class 1 railroad to its customer base, allowing HSI to strengthen its presence in the North American market.
“A growing market share with new customers and new requirements is an exciting focus for our team,” said Troy Elbert, assistant vice president of Herzog Services, Inc.
Jeff Wigh, director of Research and Development, has been working diligently to increase HSI’s technical staff and to partner with HSI customers to analyze and meet changing needs and wants in the rail testing industry.
The Research and Development team also has new products on the horizon that Elbert says will not only improve defect detection capabilities, but also provide a suite of products to increase the analytical options available. Data, such as rail profile and light geometry, can be added if a customer so desires and can be updated with each subsequent scheduled ultrasonic inspection.
“This will allow us to collate ultrasonic inspection and other rail health data to trend and monitor problem areas more efficiently for our customers. This could present a cost savings to our customers by allowing them to focus on areas that need more frequent inspections or other maintenance measures to prevent premature rail failures,” said Elbert. “HSI will continue to provide customer service to the industry and refine our products to be the most reliable and efficient inspection system on the market. With upcoming new product capabilities and expansion of services, Herzog Services, Inc.’s goal is to give our customers value for their inspection dollar.”
Nordco Rail Services and Inspection Technologies launched two new rail-flaw detection vehicles in 2011. The company says these vehicles focus on providing exceptional reliability and defect detection.
“To accomplish this we have introduced some exciting new technology, our patent-pending On Board Run on Run system, a 48-channel fully digital hardware platform and an Automatic Wheel Probe alignment system utilizing rail profiling data,” said Patrick Graham, president of Nordco Rail Services and Inspection Technologies. “Our focus is to continue to improve the quality of the test while driving up the total miles we can test in a given day. The On Board Run on Run system allows the operator to see the previous test information; this will allow better decisions and affect both test speed and quality.”
Graham notes that adding rail profiling to a detector car allows the railroad to collect profiling data as frequent as every two weeks or specifically tailored to a customer’s needs.
“However, it also provides the detector car with the exact location of the web of the rail relative to the gauge corner. Using this, we have specific algorithms that adjust the wheel probe to insure it is always centered over the web of the rail. Once again, increasing quality and test speed,” said Graham.
Nordco also launched the “One Pass” manual inspection system in 2011. This allows for a fully recordable GPS tracked test of a rail in one pass. Nordco utilizes its XL9-11 wheel probe with 11 transducers including the side looker transducers for vertical split head detection.
According to Graham, customers are continuing to request increased quality and test speed, as well as looking for ways to reduce service failures.
“One of the ways we responded to this need is our expanded 48-channel platform. This allows us to continually deploy new wheel probe technology with significant extra processing power. When we couple this with our latest XL9-11 wheel probe, we have extra physical room available on the test carriage and have extra process channels.
Because rail surface conditions can be a factor in providing a good quality test and training and maintaining quality personnel is always a challenge due to the nature of the business, Nordco says it has enhanced its training programs with in-house simulations and hands-on track time to further develop the skills of its chief operators.
“Nordco continues to offer the railroads varying solutions to rail-flaw detection. We provide full service turnkey testing services, as well as sell rail-flaw detection systems directly to the railroads. This allows the railroad to work with the model that best fits their business needs. In many cases, the solution we provide is in-between the two options, which continues to be the strength of Nordco; flexibility to provide the right solution to meet our customer’s needs,” said Graham.
Precision Rail Stress Testing Inc (Precision RST) says it is addressing a long-standing industry need with the introduction of the Rail Stress Tester. According to Precision RST, the system is designed to quickly and accurately measure the neutral temperature of rail in a non-destructive manner.
“Our customers have told us that they are looking for a neutral temperature testing system that is accurate, fast, portable and non-destructive,” said Rick Middaugh, general manager at Precision RST. “There is increasing demand in a number of areas, from Class 1 to passenger to short lines: If there is a risk of a rail break or thermal misalignment, there is a need for neutral temperature testing.”
Middaugh notes that with rail stress measurement testing, the ongoing challenge lies in measuring the residual stress in the rail, as every rail has its own residual stress, however minimal. He says the system being introduced by Precision RST includes a calibration process that addresses the residual stress issue and allows for quick and accurate measurements every time.
“Neutral temperature testing has been an issue for years and Precision RST’s solution offers an efficient, accurate and cost-effective method to measure neutral temperature,” said Middaugh. “This system can be used for planning purposes. Railroads can focus valuable resources and maintenance efforts based on the results of the testing. The system can also be used for validation. For example, the tester could be applied as cwr is being laid and de-stressed to validate that it has been de-stressed to the targeted level prior to welding.”
Sperry Rail Service says a number of technological developments it brought to the market contributed to the company’s detection of 90,000 rail-flaw defects in North America last year.
“Sperry’s approach is based on three principles – customization, innovation and service,” said Jamie O’Rourke, general manager of Sperry. “Railway clients share common issues but are inherently unique in their operations, with widely varying internal infrastructures, cultures, track conditions, usage, standards and regulatory oversight. The Sperry approach is to customize our proprietary capabilities and best-available technologies for programs specific to each railway.”
Sperry says recent innovations have come from a range of specific customer needs to broaden strategies implemented from around the world. For example, Sperry has deployed and released its Joint Bar Crack Detection (JBCD) system for inspecting joint bars for cracks or breaks. According to Sperry, the need was highlighted by Class 1 railroads’ interest in leveraging the frequency of Sperry’s rail-flaw detection vehicle to deliver a non-disruptive, value-add solution. John Kocur, who leads Sperry’s production engineering, said “the JBCD has been deployed on our 950 Series vehicle platform. The test vehicles are upgradable with the JBCD technology. This means no additional track access time is required to complete the joint bar inspection.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Sperry says it is advancing the implementation of its nonstop testing program in North America, moving from the pilot stage of 2010 to offering full service in 2012. This is being done collaboratively with rail-flaw detection leaders of the Class 1 railroads in a series of “stakeholder meetings” allowing each railroad engineering group to review the best fit of this technology for their specific infrastructure.
“The common denominator between our Joint Bar Crack Detection and our nonstop testing innovation is more actionable management information while lessening the footprint of inspection services,” said Alastair Veitch, managing director of global engineering at Sperry, “North American railroads will continue to require reduced risk while traffic and tonnage increase. That means efficiency and expertise in the testing service are paramount.”
Sperry says its technology road map requires new products and enhancements in platforms for delivery, detection technology and software management and points out 2011 was a year of significant development in all three. In platforms, Sperry says its delivery of the new Sperry 450 Series vehicle offers a lighter-weight and more nimble rail-flaw detection vehicle to deliver its core ultrasonic, X-Fire and vision technologies. The company points out that this platform is a fit for railroads seeing the benefit from a smaller vehicle than Sperry’s 950 Series vehicle. Further down the size scale, 2011 saw the implementation and rollout of the Dual Rail Inspection System and B-SCAN Flaw Detector single rail walking stick.
In the key area of detection technology, Sperry’s efforts continue to drive towards a full review of the rail condition. The biggest challenges to full detection, notes the company, come from the surface condition of the rail and the need to inspect the steel at a high-speed. An exciting focus for Sperry is the improvement of its proprietary induction technology bringing newly modeled coverage of the rail head for detecting defects with induction as part of Sperry’s next generation Electromagnetic Rail Inspection. This technology includes Sperry’s new surface crack detection and measurement system. Sperry has initiated trials with new base-defect focused ultrasonic technology that can be targeted for areas with a high concentration of base defects. Dr. Mark Havira, who has been leading Sperry’s ultrasonic detection research and development for 10 years, commented that “the full complement of testing platforms from slow to high speed now in service by Sperry gives us the opportunity to focus detection where it is most needed. This is especially true with base defects.”
Sperry says it has made advancements in the area of software and information technology, as well. The company offers its Sperry Data Management System (SDMS), which uses the Internet with secure access to the rail-flaw detection history for each of Sperry’s North American customers and has outfitted all of its rail-flaw detection equipment with wireless technology to ensure connectivity with the vehicles and monitoring performance on a real-time basis.
The proprietary DCS.NET on-vehicle software program has been completely implemented in 2011 and manages the inspection process while updating and drawing from SDMS. Sperry notes that a powerful new component recently developed enables the chief operator on the vehicle to concurrently view prior tests to assess changes in the rail condition. Sperry points to this tool as a key reason the DCS.NET was advanced across its fleet.
Dave Corby, Sperry director of software and information technology said “these advancements are part of the Sperry Geographical Information System (SGIS) that will accurately tie locations and historical information to benefit each North American railroad, in line with their specific information technology strategy”.
Underpinning all of the above technological advancement is the ongoing development of a highly skilled workforce to operate these systems that are mission-critical to the railroads. Sperry points out its stringent classroom training for rail-flaw detection chief operators and 2011 marked the 100th graduation from the class curriculum by a Sperry employee.
“With all the technological advancements coming from fifty engineers working at Sperry, the focused training on standard operating procedures allows us to ensure we not only meet our customers’ needs in technology, but equally as important, in service,” stated O’Rourke.
CSX introduced a new program, CSX Select Sites, offering customers an easy way to access certified, rail-ready properties for a variety of industrial uses.
The Surface Transportation Board selected new appointees to serve on the Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council. RSTAC consists of 15 members appointed by the board’s chairman. It provides a forum for the discussion of matters of concern to rail shippers and railroads.
Norfolk Southern participated in the location of 73 new industries and the expansion of 27 existing industries along its rail lines in 2011.
Patriot Rail Corp. has donated its 21-mile Mississippi & Skuna Valley Railroad to Calhoun and Yalobusha counties in Mississippi.
Canadian Pacific sent a letter to its shareholders from John Cleghorn, Chairman of the Board of Directors. In the letter, Cleghorn explained CP’s Multi-Year Plan, which has three key elements: driving volume growth, expanding network capacity to safely and efficiently support higher volumes and controlling costs.
Alaska Railroad Corporation hired Dale Wade as vice president of business development. Wade started his new position on January 3, 2012. The vice president of business development is responsible for ARRC Business Development Division activities including the marketing, promotion, sales, pricing, product design and implementation of freight and passenger services for the Alaska Railroad.