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Rail Technologies

Providing Railroad Safety and Efficiency

For more than 38 years, ENSCO has supplied railroads around the world with the most advanced safety and asset management technologies available.
 

Continuing Support to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)

ENSCO has worked on numerous major research initiatives for the FRA’s Office of Research and Development for more than 35 years. Results of these FRA efforts continue to be used by railroads throughout the United States to improve operations safety. Highlights of our work this past year include advancements in automated joint bar inspection technology, development of a model for predicting rail temperatures based on real-time meteorological forecast data, and continuing development of new technologies that are the basis for autonomous track geometry inspection systems. In addition, we installed a prototype autonomous track geometry inspection system in revenue service operations. Ongoing efforts are expected to further refine this technology during the next year to create systems capable of long-term, unattended operation for deployment throughout the United States. ENSCO also continues to assist the FRA Office of Safety’s Automated Track Inspection Program (ATIP) in its mission to ensure railroad safety. Under the ATIP program, more than 66,000 miles of track were surveyed this past year using ENSCO-designed track inspection cars.

ENSCO Expands its Track Inspection Service Business

In FY08, ENSCO significantly expanded its track inspection service business with the addition of new equipment, technology and customers. ENSCO’s track geometry and rail profile measurement service now includes four portable systems for installation on revenue service rail vehicles, as well as one dedicated hi-rail truck that is capable of offering third rail measurement service to transit railways. This new capital equipment has been used on several major railways as well as transit railways throughout the world including Caltrains, Canadian National Railway Co., Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), Toronto Transit, San Diego’s North County Transit District, and Brazil’s SuperVia Railway. ENSCO’s contract with SuperVia represents our first project in South America.

ENSCO began offering its latest inspection technology—the Automated Joint Bar Inspection System (JBIS)—as a contract service in FY08. Three service trucks were built in FY08 and were used to test more than 3,000 miles of track, detecting more than 2,000 defective bars. Customers included Union Pacific Corp.; Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway; and Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp.; as well as Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., which was an early adopter and development partner for the JBIS. The JBIS was born of research sponsored by the FRA and ENSCO’s internal research and development.

Work for the Chinese Ministry of Railways

ENSCO introduced modern track geometry technology to China in 1986. This past year, we were selected by the Chinese Ministry of Railways to furnish the track geometry and vehicle acceleration measurement systems for China’s 250 kilometer-per-hour Comprehensive Inspection Train. Use of ENSCO’s high-speed track inspection technologies aids the efforts of the Chinese Ministry of Railways to ensure the safety of its newly built high-speed passenger rail lines.

Commercial Expansion with Sale of DGRMS Technology

We further expanded our foothold in the commercial rail marketplace by winning a contract with Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. for delivery of a patented Deployable Gage Restraint Measurement System (DGRMS). Also in use by the FRA, the DGRMS conducts performance-based testing of railroad track strength, locating bad ties and fasteners for track maintenance planning. The DGRMS was developed through research sponsored by the FRA and through ENSCO’s internal research and development.

Vehicle/Track Interaction Systems Continue to Make Track Safer

There are now more than 200 ENSCO Vehicle/Track Interaction (V/TI) systems in operation throughout North America. Developed jointly by ENSCO, Amtrak and the FRA, our V/TI systems report locations where track conditions cause unacceptable vehicle dynamic responses and potentially damaging track forces. FY08 marked a successful year for sales of our V/TI Systems to North American railroads. Existing and new customers purchased systems, including Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern Corp., Metrolink, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and CSX Corp. We continue to advance V/TI technology through additional research and development on new sensors and signal processing for the system. As an added service, we recently rolled out a new TrackIT® data management Web site that all V/TI customers can access for managing their track data.

New Technology to Market: RailScan Lite Hi-Rail Gage Inspection System

In FY08, ENSCO released RailScan Lite, an economical hi-rail mounted solution for measuring gage conditions on railroads. RailScan Lite plugs into a USB port on a laptop computer and produces accurate and objective reporting of track gage conditions. Current users of this product include Trakspec Railroad Corporation and Union Pacific.

ENSCO Expands its Consulting Services

ENSCO’s team of vehicle/track instrumentation, testing, analysis and consulting engineers continue to create solutions to complex railroad engineering problems. For Amtrak, we conducted a test to quantify the load environment experienced by brake discs on the Acela train under winter conditions. ENSCO performed the initial study of Acela brake discs in 2005. Amtrak has relied on ENSCO’s testing and consulting expertise for more than 25 years.

ENSCO delivered a complex data acquisition and analysis system for use on Norfolk Southern Research and Test Car 32 to perform a variety of quality assurance testing. As further evidence of our expanding presence in the transit market, we were awarded a contract with Metro-North Railroad, part of the state of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to deliver engineering consulting services in the investigation of vehicle/track dynamics, particularly as related to derailment safety.

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