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Hub AI
Defect detector AI simulator
(@Defect detector_simulator)
Hub AI
Defect detector AI simulator
(@Defect detector_simulator)
Defect detector
A defect detector is a device used on railroads to detect axle and signal problems in passing trains. The detectors are normally integrated into the tracks and often include sensors to detect several different kinds of problems that could occur. Defect detectors were one of the inventions which enabled American railroads to eliminate the caboose at the rear of the train, as well as various station agents placed along active routes to detect unsafe conditions. The use of defect detectors has since spread overseas to other railroad systems.
Before the advent of automated detectors, on-board train crew and track-side workers used to visually inspect trains for defects, like "hotboxes" (overheating bearings) which would smoke or glow red. By the 1940s, automatic defect detectors included infrared sensors for hotboxes, wires outlining the clearance envelope to detect high and wide loads, and "brittle bars" – frangible bars mounted between the rails – to detect dragging equipment. The detectors would transmit their data via wired links to remote read-outs in stations, offices or interlocking towers, where a stylus-and-cylinder gauge would record a reading for every axle; a defect would register a sharp spike on the graph and an alarm would sound or a visible signal would be given to the train crew.
The first computerized detectors had lights indicating the nature of defect and a numeric display of the associated axle number.
Seaboard Air Line was the first railroad to install defect detectors which "spoke" their results over radios carried by train crew starting around 1960, with the first being installed in Riceboro, Georgia, on their now abandoned Everett Subdivision. Later models allowed crews to interact with the detector using a touch tone function on their radios to recall the defect report. Today, defect detectors are typically part of the general monitoring platforms keeping track of train status.
A defect detector would sound like this: (This was the read out of CSX train Q452-05 by the Campville Defect Detector on April 6, 2019. The defect detector is located at Campville, Florida, on the CSX Wildwood Subdivision.)
CSX EQUIPMENT DEFECT DETECTOR. MILEPOST 7-0-0-POINT-1. NO DEFECTS. NO DEFECTS. TOTAL AXLES 7-3-8. TRAIN LENGTH 1-3-7-6-4. SPEED 4-5. END OF TRANSMISSION.
In the 2000s, defect detectors have increasingly incorporated computers to generate more detailed and accurate reports of train status. Modern systems use computer programs to analyze photographs and identify potential errors for review by humans. One focus has been on reducing the number of false positives, which require trains to stop and be inspected, causing delays.
Installed defect detectors can include a broad selection of different sensors. The sensor-types are described in the subsections, below:
Defect detector
A defect detector is a device used on railroads to detect axle and signal problems in passing trains. The detectors are normally integrated into the tracks and often include sensors to detect several different kinds of problems that could occur. Defect detectors were one of the inventions which enabled American railroads to eliminate the caboose at the rear of the train, as well as various station agents placed along active routes to detect unsafe conditions. The use of defect detectors has since spread overseas to other railroad systems.
Before the advent of automated detectors, on-board train crew and track-side workers used to visually inspect trains for defects, like "hotboxes" (overheating bearings) which would smoke or glow red. By the 1940s, automatic defect detectors included infrared sensors for hotboxes, wires outlining the clearance envelope to detect high and wide loads, and "brittle bars" – frangible bars mounted between the rails – to detect dragging equipment. The detectors would transmit their data via wired links to remote read-outs in stations, offices or interlocking towers, where a stylus-and-cylinder gauge would record a reading for every axle; a defect would register a sharp spike on the graph and an alarm would sound or a visible signal would be given to the train crew.
The first computerized detectors had lights indicating the nature of defect and a numeric display of the associated axle number.
Seaboard Air Line was the first railroad to install defect detectors which "spoke" their results over radios carried by train crew starting around 1960, with the first being installed in Riceboro, Georgia, on their now abandoned Everett Subdivision. Later models allowed crews to interact with the detector using a touch tone function on their radios to recall the defect report. Today, defect detectors are typically part of the general monitoring platforms keeping track of train status.
A defect detector would sound like this: (This was the read out of CSX train Q452-05 by the Campville Defect Detector on April 6, 2019. The defect detector is located at Campville, Florida, on the CSX Wildwood Subdivision.)
CSX EQUIPMENT DEFECT DETECTOR. MILEPOST 7-0-0-POINT-1. NO DEFECTS. NO DEFECTS. TOTAL AXLES 7-3-8. TRAIN LENGTH 1-3-7-6-4. SPEED 4-5. END OF TRANSMISSION.
In the 2000s, defect detectors have increasingly incorporated computers to generate more detailed and accurate reports of train status. Modern systems use computer programs to analyze photographs and identify potential errors for review by humans. One focus has been on reducing the number of false positives, which require trains to stop and be inspected, causing delays.
Installed defect detectors can include a broad selection of different sensors. The sensor-types are described in the subsections, below:
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