On track with Monash - Monitoring rail track conditions

October 2006

Monash's Institute of Railway Technology has developed a fully automated condition monitoring system for railways. The system, developed in collaboration with BHP Billiton (BHPB) Iron Ore Rail Road, monitors the health of rail operations throughout the network and collects vital information for the planning of future maintenance and operational strategies. BHPB Iron Ore operates the longest (up to 336 cars long) and the heaviest (37.5 ton) trains in the world. This means it is vital to closely monitor the condition of the track, track deterioration rate and the effectiveness of the maintenance activities over a period of time to enable proactive maintenance. The system Three permanently instrumented ore cars, developed by Monash's Institute of Railway Technology, are currently operating on over 600km of track. The cars record key parameters and automatically upload the data back to base for analysis after each run. The outcomes

Information collected by the cars is accurately cross-referenced to track location via an on-board global positioning system. This information is then used across a broad spectrum of the identification of track irregularities and the planning of track maintenance activities, including:

• Overall track performance (vehicle/track interaction)
• Local rail/track defects (wheel/rail interaction)
• Dynamic effect on bridges
• Vehicle performance and stability
• Train operation and control
• Trending and projection analysis
• Assessment of maintenance operations (deterioration rates)
• Driver training
• Maintenance programming
• Condition monitoring
• Operational planning
• Defect mitigation and preventative maintenance schemes
  

Through instrumented vehicles, the ability to identify track irregularities and plan track maintenance activities using the information collected has become a benchmark that other railway systems are striving to achieve.

The future

The success of permanently instrumented vehicles have been clearly realised by BHPB and further development programs are currently underway to expand the use of this system.

For more information please visit the Institute of Railway Technology website or call Ravi Ravitharan on +61 3 9905 1986.