Railway Track & Structures - February 2009 - (Page 30)

Rail lubrication proving potential This applies to all modes of application, including the PROTECTOR®, AutoPilot™ and RoadRunner™ series of trackside, on-board and hi-rail systems, that are part of our H.O.W.™ offering that Portec Rail introduced over a decade ago,” said Oldknow. “One clear example of this in the trackside world is the introduction of the GreaseGuide™ applicator bar. Developed with the help of a western Class 1 railroad, it is a dramatic improvement to gauge face grease application efficiency and wayside site cleanliness. With a reduction in the number of applicator bars required to achieve fully-effective gauge face lubrication, both hardware and maintenance costs are further reduced. “Major improvements in the PROTECTOR-IV® Top of Rail friction management system’s applicator bars, as well as fluid-handling components, enhance Top of Rail Friction Modifier, i.e., KELTRACK®, application effectivenessa nd provide significant reductions in required maintenance,” he said. In addition, the functionality of the PROTECTOR-IV® digital controller has been enhanced to include advanced programming functionality that minimizes product consumption in particularlychallenging territories, as well as providing critical feedback on system status and performance using Portec Rail’s Remote Performance Monitoring technology. Beyond monitoring the basic status and performance of systems, Portec Rail has continued to leverage its expertise in wheel/rail interface issues, measurement systems and analysis techniques to provide sophisticated and detailed monitoring of short- and longdevelopment of improved equipment, materials and systems will remain a major focus for the Portec Rail Group, with several major announcements planned for 2009. Put together, the above product and service capabilities allow for the implementation of Total Friction Management™, which has been successfully rolled out at Canadian Pacific Railway. Portec Rail’s ability to manage all aspects of territory-wide friction control programs was first demonstrated in CPR’s Northern Ontario Service Area. This project has been in place since 2003 and includes management of all gauge face lubrication activities over a territory of approximately 520 route miles. Starting in early 2008, CPR and Portec Rail Group began rolling out a comprehensive TFM™ project in Western Canada covering approximately 900 main line route miles between Calgary, Alta., and Vancouver, B.C. The project incorporates deployment, management and monitoring of trackside top-of-rail application systems, and trackside gauge face lubrication systems. The overall territory is organized into four maintenance zones, with a total of eight unionized CPR maintenance and material handling resources dedicated to the project. All TOR and gauge face systems are being outfitted with remote performance monitoring (RPM™) technology, allowing the status, performance and product consumption of each unit to be tracked remotely. The information collected from these systems will allow Portec Rail’s project management team to direct the daily activities of CPR maintenance and material handling Lincoln Industrial’s TOR system. term friction control performance via measurement and tracking of lateral/vertical forces, friction levels, rail wear, fuel consumption, rolling contact fatigue development and other key metrics. This allows the railroad to have full confidence in the benefits that are achieved through friction control and the associated return on investment. One of the most important aspects of a successful friction management program is the tank-filling process. With track time at a premium and territorywide friction control programs becoming the norm, the ability to quickly and efficiently fill gauge face and top-of-rail applicator tanks is critical. To this end, the Portec Rail Group has also focused on providing a suite of bulk filling solutions, including bulk delivery formats and transfer systems, for both gauge face grease and KELTRACK® top-of-rail friction modifier, that can be tweaked to efficiently mesh with existing maintenance resources. Moving forward, the continuous 30 Railway Track & Structures February 2009 www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

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Railway Track and Structures - February 2009 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Railroads Stepping Up Use of Technology to Locate Rail Flaws Rail Lubrication Realizing Great Potential M/W Challenges: Track Settlement at Bridge Approaches Supplier Profiles Products and Literature People Calendar Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Website Directory Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - February 2009

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