TIMEOUT FOR TECH
INNOVATION Invisible to the Eye, Essential to Safety
odern railways are deeply innovative and dynamic systems. Despite this fact, I am frequently in conversations with people who wonder why “things never seem to change on the railroad.” They are surprised to learn the truth of just how changed and changeable railways really are! So, why the disconnect? In my experience, it has a lot to do with what our eyes can see. For example, most people can clearly see the considerable differences between steam locomotives of the past and modern high-speed passenger trains. In contrast, however, the physical railways upon which modern locomotives run look much the same as railways from 150 years ago that supported steam locomotives. Is it possible that trains have improved, while the railways under them are the same? 32 Railway Age // January 2024
Most railways still employ the basic concept of hard steel wheels rolling along two hard steel rails. Today’s rails still have a head, a web and a base. Timber ties remain very common. Broken-rock ballast layers are the norm for supporting the ties on a compacted and shaped roadbed of soil. Since “seeing is believing,” it does appear that railways haven’t changed much. Our eyes deceive us! It turns out that some of the most important innovations in railroading are essentially invisible. One place comes to mind in particular: inside rails. Rails fail much less frequently today and last longer than ever under historically unprecedented demand—much heavier and more frequent axle loads. These substantial gains in safety and performance are largely a result of enhanced metallurgy and improved manufacturing processes. Only under detailed examination in a metallurgy lab,
using microscopes, can one see the differences between modern rails and those from decades past. Extraordinary and ingenious metallurgical and manufacturing innovations are simply unseen as we watch trains roll by! There are other amazing innovations on the railway that often go unnoticed because they seem to be normal features alongside the tracks. Here, I’m referring to wayside detection systems. For example, intensely clever devices, protected within weather-worn metal boxes, identify wheels with geometric irregularities, such as missing tread pieces caused by the fast fracture of internal fatigue defects. There are similarly unremarkable metal containers for complex digital systems that identify bearings with thermal and/ or acoustic anomalies that might indicate internal damage. Further, with respect to wayside detection systems, there are dedicated railwayage.com
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By Gary T. Fry, Ph.D., P.E., Vice President, Fry Technical Services, Inc.