Loram is using its RailPro system to improve condition monitoring and rail grinding offerings to the rail industry.
Rail Express spoke with Nick Keogh, senior track performance engineer at Loram, to learn more about how the organisation monitors rail condition.
Keogh has spent 13 years in the rail industry after completing university and joining Aurizon’s graduate program. He spent time working across a range of sectors for the organisation but says his time in the data science team was an insightful experience as a young engineer.
“Everyone is recording so much information, so it was insightful to see how that information was interpreted,” he said. “It was great to gain an awareness of how to interpret data and what that data was saying about the asset itself. I got to experience both sides of rail maintenance.”
Keogh’s role at Loram is to understand the data that is captured and influence the grinding of the rail to maximise the asset life.
The role of the team
The track performance team straddles multiple realms in the organisation. In the day-to-day operations, it influences the machines to ensure they are maximising the effectiveness of each one.
“We are always exploring and fine-tuning the ways the machines operate out on the track,” Keogh said. “We spend a lot of time evaluating just what the machines can do and how we can best utilise that to benefit the customers.”
Keogh said that these optimisations give the team access to a range of data sets. They can ascertain high volume of profile measurements and other rail parameters that they can feed into pipelines for feedback on trends for the rail and to generate reports and recommendations for themselves and the customer.
“When the industry started high production, mechanised grinding in the 1980s they pretty much got it right straight away; the goal was to restore profile and remove corrugations and it did just that,” Keogh said.
“In the past 15 to 20 years we have seen the growth of technology in this space as a means of improving the offerings of rail grinding leading to incremental improvements across the industry. Nowadays, preventative profile management are the norm.
“What you can buy off the shelf is great but the technology we are developing at Loram has really unlocked the capabilities of rail grinding.”
RailPro
Loram has progressed its rail grinding equipment to be productive and reliable. The majority of the grinding can be done in a single pass at high speeds with Loram’s larger machines. The single pass means it has to be right with how it applies the power of the machine.
Keogh said to get this right and a highlight of Loram’s improved technology is its RailPro system. The system relies on an intelligence base of specialised grinding knowledge accumulated through decades of experience in rail grinding and track maintenance.
By combining this knowledge and experience with accurate, real time, rail condition and asset data, useful information is produced that supports micro and macro level planning of a grind program.
The system has been designed for use with light axle load metros through to large heavy haul railroads in mind and can be customised to meet customers’ specific needs.
“RailPro is your one-stop-shop for rail grinding management, including modules for data collection, rail inspection, grind performance monitoring, analysis and reporting,” Keogh said. “It makes the cyclical processes of a grind program
more manageable.
“The inspection module uses intelligent, knowledge-based, predictive algorithms to analyse the rail condition and determine the grind passes, patterns, and speeds that will remove the optimal amount of metal while delivering precise profile control.”
The rail profile and rail surface condition information required by the grind planning algorithms is acquired by a number of methods but typically on large heavy haul networks with a Rail Inspection Vehicle (RIV).
Loram’s RIV is equipped with state-of the-art hardware and software including an optical Rail Profile Measurement System (RPMS), Rail Surface Monitoring System (RSMS), and Loram’s RailPro Inspection software enabling the railroad to perform timely, automatic pre-grind rail inspections.
This automated inspection allows for more accuracy, consistency, and repeatability, which ultimately leads to cost savings through maximising the life of the rail.
“The concept of RailPro really came out of the notion of how a maintenance worker knows where to put the stones. How do they know how much metal needs to be removed?” Keogh said. “This is where the technology is an asset as it gives the worker much clearer insights into the work that needs to be done.”
Keogh said that the RailPro system has a high level of maturity which sets it apart. The system can emulate what a human would do, quickly identifying the needs of the rail. He said it takes the guesswork out of rail grinding.
“In the past, people had to make the decision to grind rail on the fly and quickly,” he said.
“Whereas with the RailPro it simply lays out for the team exactly where they need to go to improve the condition of the rail.”
He said the RailPro system signalled a fundamental change in the way Loram maintains track from the operators on the machines through to the engineers.
From pre-inspections through to post grinds and quality auditing, it has given the organisation greater clarity in the work needed. Keogh emphasised the importance of the company’s rail experts and machine operators to ensure success, stating their insights are still a critical part of the work.
“They have this fundamental knowledge of hyper specific areas of rail that they can enhance with our RailPro system. They can share their own knowledge with the client and then support that with the data collected by RailPro.
“It’s the conduit in which the human interacts with the rail. At its core it executes the same work every time and that consistency is what makes it beneficial.”
Predictive maintenance
Keogh said that the rail grinding provided by Loram is always predictive in nature, it’s how the RailPro works with the team that ensures its success.
“As an industry we have really grown from reactive grinding to preventive grinding,” he said.
“Our system is giving that clearer picture to identify potential issues and then determines how best to apply the grinder long before those issues develop to faults and cause premature rail replacement or even shuts down the track.”
When Loram discovers issues and defects it is recorded in its database, giving clear records to customers. That information can be collated and passed on whenever desired.
Keogh noted the data can provide interesting information around the source of a defect.
As an example, a client may be getting wheel burns on a specific part of the track, and they can pass that information back on to close the loop.
“We have seen changes in driver methodology based on this feedback,” Keogh said. “It comes back to the ethos that Loram always wants what is best for the rail.
“Whatever the source of the problem is not something caused by the rail, we want to find ways to help our clients improve their rail networks.”
How Loram reports information and works completed varies for each customer. Often the team will report monthly for simple checks and Loram will go through line by line to make note of any problems identified.
“We will then deep dive those problems to make recommendations on the work that can be done,” Keogh said.
“The initial communication is generally relayed during planned monthly meetings and when the contractual reporting is fulfilled we can put our engineering hats on and dive into the nitty gritty.
“Once we have worked with the clients project managers we as engineers can have some fun with it and work our way through the data to better understand their network and propose ideas for optimising.”
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