Tahoe Silicon Mountain, a network of technology professionals who live and work in the Tahoe-Truckee area, is pleased to welcome Dan Rubin to present: “Disruptive Technologies in Railroading.”
Railroads today are faced with evaluating rapidly emerging technologies for controlling systems, inspections, robotics, energy harvesting, sensor networks and more.
Dan Rubin, General Director of System Engineering for the Union Pacific, will discuss technologies in use or being developed by Union Pacific, including their move to replace their 40-year old IBM mainframe-based transportation system and their adoption of a sensor network to monitor individual rail cars.
Prior to joining Union Pacific, Rubin worked for AMCI/Nexterna developing communication systems in support of railroad operations and at Sandia National Labs developing systems for Department of Defense.
You can learn more about the Union Pacific here: http://bit.ly/AboutUnionPacific
The meeting will be on Monday, May 11th, 6-8 pm at Pizza on the Hill, in Tahoe Donner at 11509 Northwoods Blvd., Truckee. A $5 fee includes pizza and salad. Before and after the presentation, there will be time for networking with other technology professionals who live and work in the Tahoe-Truckee region.
This month’s event is sponsored by New Leaders, Clear Capital and the Truckee Donner Railroad Society.
You can find us on LinkedIn and Facebook and at TahoeSiliconMountain.com or sign up for email meeting announcements here: http://bit.ly/14XGofL.
3. 3
Fast Facts
• Commodity
Revenue $15.5 B
• Route Miles 32,200 in
23 States
• Employees 49,000
• Annual Payroll $3.9 B
• Customers 25,000
• Locomotives 8,700
Union Pacific System
Portland
Oakland
LA
Calexico
Nogales El Paso
Seattle
Eagle Pass
SLC
Eastport
Brownsville
Houston
KC
St. Louis
Omaha
Twin Cities
Duluth
Denver
Laredo
Dallas
Memphis
Chicago
New
Orleans
5. 5
Class I Railroads
• Rail's share of the US
freight market is about 43%
(The Economist, 2010)
• Total US freight moved per
year: 6 trillion ton-miles
• Class I railroads move: 1.7
trillion ton-miles
• Union Pacific alone moves
more than 0.5 trillion ton-
miles (about 9 million
carloads)
Sources: DOT, AAR, UP fact book
6. 6
Locomotives
Cars
• Typical Horse Power of a long-haul locomotive: 4000 HP (Toyota Camry: 178 HP)
• Typical weight of a train: 3,000 – 8,000 tons (Toyota Camry: 1.5 tons)
• Typical train length: 90 cars + 2 locomotives ( ~ 1 mile long)
• Average freight per car: 63 tons (91,000 bottles of beer)
8. 8
Recent and Current R&D Initiatives
• Smart Train Inspection
• Robotic Equipment Handling at Yards
• Ultrasonic Wheel Inspection System
• Motes and Energy Harvesting
• Other R&D Projects
• Positive Train Control
9. 9
Recent and Current R&D Initiatives
• Smart Train Inspection
• Robotic Equipment Handling at Yards
• Ultrasonic Wheel Inspection System
• Motes and Energy Harvesting
• Other R&D Projects
• Positive Train Control
22. 22
Recent and Current R&D Initiatives
• Smart Train Inspection
• Robotic Equipment Handling at Yards
• Ultrasonic Wheel Inspection System
• Motes and Energy Harvesting
• Other R&D Projects
• Positive Train Control
24. 24
Recent and Current R&D Initiatives
• Smart Train Inspection
• Robotic Equipment Handling at Yards
• Ultrasonic Wheel Inspection System
• Motes and Energy Harvesting
• Other R&D Projects
• Positive Train Control
25. 25
Ultrasonic Cracked Wheel Detection
• Detects internal wheel cracks
• Inspects over 500,000 wheels
annually
• Annually about 100 wheels are
replaced which would have gone
undetected otherwise
26. 26
Recent and Current R&D Initiatives
• Smart Train Inspection
• Robotic Equipment Handling at Yards
• Ultrasonic Wheel Inspection System
• Motes and Energy Harvesting
• Other R&D Projects
• Positive Train control
28. 28
Recent and Current R&D Initiatives
• Smart Train Inspection
• Robotic Equipment Handling at Yards
• Ultrasonic Wheel Inspection System
• Motes and Energy Harvesting
• Other R&D Projects
• Positive Train Control
33. 33
Software Defined Radio (SDR)
• Decoding radio signals
in out
Low Pass
Filter in out
Fast Fourier
Transform
Raspberry Pi
34. 34
Recent and Current R&D Initiatives
• Smart Train Inspection
• Robotic Equipment Handling at Yards
• Ultrasonic Wheel Inspection System
• Motes and Energy Harvesting
• Other R&D Projects
• Positive Train Control
35. 35
Positive Train Control
Building Safety • Government mandate
• Collision avoidance technology
• Continually calculates braking distances
• $2+
B
• Challenges
– Communications spectrum & coverage
– Interoperability
– Must install 12,000 wayside, 6,800
locomotive and 1,500 base station systems
Initialization
Track Database
Speed Restrictions
Work Zones
Train Consist
Movement
Authorities
Braking Curve
Warning Curve
Predictive Braking
• Signals
• Work Zones
• Switches
• Speed Restrictions
WARNING: BRAKING IN 70 SECBRAKING IN PROGRESS