To improve safety, lower the stress-state of railroads, and increase operational efficiency, it's essential to have in place preventive and predictive, condition-based maintenance policies and an integrated system of wayside detectors. In an ideal scenario, a variety of detectors, each collecting car-specific data, would report to a central, automated reporting center. Here, the information would be examined for unfavorable trends, compared with other detector inputs and historical data, and used to determine when or if a car requires maintenance.

Following are among the wayside technologies that railroads use now, those under evaluation, and how the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. is bringing defect-detection data together to promote rail network efficiency.

* Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILD[TM]) have been a mainstay for identifying wheels with shells, spalls, and out of rounds for over a decade. WILD protects railroads from damaging loads and derailments due to broken rails. The Association of American Railroads Interchange Rules enable a handling railroad to remove a noncompliant rolling-stock component and bill the vehicle owner for labor, repair, and replacement costs.