Northeast Corridor, Edgewood MD
Wheel Impact Load Detector (WILD)
| In the quiet rural beauty of Harford County MD, Amtrak installed a Salient Systems wheel impact load detector or "WILD" system. Using rail mounted strain gauges, it can weigh each wheel of a train as it passes over, and detect skid flats in the wheels. A wheel with flat spots can create impact loads many times higher than the fully loaded weight of the car it carries and cause serious damage to the railroad. |
| The site was repaired recently, and new freight car tag readers were installed. A number of the strain gauges were replaced and the cabling for the tag readers and the existing cabling were rerouted for ease of track work. |
| This was the first site we installed tag readers to monitor train movement. The location was ideal as there are only two tracks and it's a well travelled freight corridor. The readers in between tracks had to be mounted low so as to not be struck by passing equipment. |
| The preferred mount is "sidesill high" and eight feet from centerline of track. This gives the readers good proximity and aim, as well as plenty of room for safety. Notice the ductline cover. All wiring and cable runs go thru this ductline or an identical one on the opposite side of the site. |
| All cabling terminates in a wayside communications hut. The track wiring is isolated from the equipment with filters and surge arrestors. The equipment "sees" a train, gathers the data from the array, figures out what it's looking at, and sends the information to a central server. This could be a Salient Systems server or in our case a dedicated computer in the central engineering office in Philadelphia. |
| The site was repaired and the tag readers installed by Salient Systems technicians. Ongoing maintenance as needed is provided by local C&S personnel. |