Kansas City, MO

Title: Rail Maintenance Strategies in North America.

Different strategies for maintenance of the rails are discussed in this presentation. It concerns questions like: Is it possible to improve todays widely used strategy with cyclic preventive grinding? Is Magic Wear Rate realistic to define efficiently or is it too complex? Could cyclic monitoring of the rails and condition-based reprofiling be beneficial? When is grinding beneficial over milling and vice versa?

The presentation will be focusing on when, where and how to benefit from monitoring and reprofiling of rails. Data about the rail conditions is important for these decisions and for this different monitoring methods exist.

The presentation is based on more than 25 years experiences by the presenter in the field of condition-based maintenance of rails.

KONUX delivers data-driven solutions that transform railway asset management. By combining IoT data with advanced analytics, our solution continuously monitors track and turnout conditions, detecting degradation before failures occur. This enables infrastructure managers to optimise maintenance strategies, extend asset lifetime, and reduce unplanned downtime. Our solutions provide actionable insights that enhance network reliability, safety, and efficiency - helping railways meet growing capacity demands while lowering maintenance costs. With a focus on predictive maintenance, KONUX empowers operators to move from reactive fixes to proactive decision-making, ensuring long-term infrastructure resilience and operational excellence in an increasingly complex railway environment.

North American Railroads need advanced, low-cost, yet reliable track and car monitoring solutions for their dark rail networks. IOT sensor technologies mounted wayside can provide cost effective monitoring solutions such as broken rail, loose joints, train presence, car bearing and wheel components, etc. Today's advancements in low-power wireless mesh network systems now offer these reliable sensor solutions, and we invite you to delve into the conversation about how today's technologies can supplant traditional hard-wired solutions, leading to reliable data acquisition/transmission, less maintenance, fewer delays, and enhanced safety from better track integrity and car reliability.

From Contact Patches to Network Health

To achieve the important task of Rail Network Health, it is necessary to counter the effects of wheel/rail contact (patches) though suitable rail maintenance approaches. This Infozone will analyze how different rail degradation signatures will not simply require “a grinding train” but call for an integrated machine design with optimized machine components from the grinding stones up to the machine exhaust.

This task also requires smart and seamless integration of such an optimized grinding machine into the rail life optimization loop. This is achieved through an integrated process with advanced measurement technology, real time data handling and analysis capabilities, smart work execution and transparent documentation/QC.

Only then it is possible to provide defined and well documented rail conditions in both mainline track and special trackwork.