A system for enhancing personnel safety on a railroad track is presented. The system can receive data from sensors and/or a PTC system to determine positions of clients/worker and/or vehicles, and further utilize such data to determine if a vehicle is within a certain proximity of the client/worker location. The system can further generate geofences around clients/vehicles to and determine when such geofences intersect one another. Additionally, the present disclosure can assign severity levels and generate alerts with the assigned severity levels, and such severity levels can indicate how close a vehicle is to a particular location. It is an object of the invention to provide a system for generating alerts to notify personnel when they much retreat to a place of safety.

An automated speed control system for a locomotive having a tractive effort mechanism for moving the locomotive along a track and a braking mechanism for reducing the locomotive's speed along the track. The system including a locomotive controller that includes a memory to store computer-executable instructions, and a processor in communication with the memory to execute the instructions to retrieve one or more track grade maps each indicative of a grade of at least a portion of the track along which the locomotive is travelling, retrieve train makeup, obtain a maximum distance to a specified stopping point of the locomotive along the track, and dynamically calculate a speed limit for movement of the locomotive along the track, according to the retrieved track grade map, retrieved train makeup data, and obtained maximum distance to the specified stopping point.

An end of train device (EOT) suitable of use on a railway vehicle includes a mounting unit for installation on a car of a railway vehicle, an enclosure housing a plurality of electronic components, and an illumination device configured to illuminate a section of a surrounding area of the railway vehicle, to receive reflected light and to measure time for the reflected light to return to the illumination device for monitoring purposes of the surrounding area. Further, a monitoring system and a monitoring method are described.

An end of train device suitable of use on a railway vehicle includes a tracking device providing location data of a railway vehicle, a protection module with a processor and configured via computer executable instructions to monitor a motion of a part of the railway vehicle utilizing the location data, and initiate an emergency brake application of the part of the railway vehicle in response to a detected state of motion.

A system and method includes a first control system having one or more processors onboard a lead vehicle of a vehicle system that includes the lead vehicle and a remote vehicle. The second control system automatically restricts movement of the vehicle system based on a location of the vehicle system. The processors detect a signal instance of an operator actuating an input device, and communicate a vehicle information request message to the second control system. The second control system communicates a list of vehicle identifiers, that includes a vehicle identifier associated with the remote vehicle, to the processors. The processors communicate a wireless linking message, including a request to establish a communication link, to the remote vehicle based on the vehicle identifier associated with the remote vehicle.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system for maintaining railway situational awareness, includes a ground station configured to be mounted to a train, a UAV including a sensor, a processor, and a memory. The sensor is configured to provide a signal indicative of condition and/or an event. The memory contains instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the system to: selectively deploy the UAV, from the ground station mounted to the train, receive the signal from the sensor; and determine a condition and/or an event, relative to the train, based on the sensed signal.

A monitoring system is provided that may include a sensor configured to detect at least one characteristic related to at least one axle of a first vehicle. The monitoring system may also include a controller having one or more processors in communication with the sensor. The one or more processors may be configured to restrict movement of the first vehicle based at least in part on the at least one characteristic related to the at least one vehicle axle, and vary movement of a second vehicle based at least in part on the at least one characteristic related to the at least one vehicle axle.

A train control system uses artificial intelligence for maintaining synchronization between centralized and distributed train control models. A machine learning engine receives training data from a data acquisition hub, a first set of output control commands from a centralized virtual system modeling engine, and a second set of output control commands from a distributed virtual system modeling engine. The machine learning engine compares the first set of output control commands and the second set of output control commands, and trains a learning system using the training data to enable the machine learning engine to safely mitigate any difference between the first and second sets of output control commands using a learning function including at least one learning parameter.

A communication system includes a data manager unit, a private interface, and an open interface. The data manager unit is configured to be disposed onboard a vehicle and to manage a transmission of data from a control system of the vehicle to a plurality of applications. The private interface is configured to communicably couple the data manager unit to the control system of the vehicle, and to limit communication with the control system via a connection protocol, wherein the connection protocol is configured to prevent direct communication between the data manager unit and an application that does not use the connection protocol. The open interface is configured to communicably couple the data manager unit and the plurality of applications.

A train communication system which performs communication between a vehicle-mounted device and a TCMS includes one or a plurality of the vehicle-mounted devices and the TCMS. The vehicle-mounted device converts a signal to the TCMS into a signal in a network transmission format which is a format used for transmission over a network connectable by a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices and transmits the signal via the network and converts a signal in the network transmission format received from the TCMS via the network into a signal in an original format. The TCMS converts a signal to the vehicle-mounted device into a signal in the network transmission format and transmits the signal via the network, and converts a signal in the network transmission format received from the vehicle-mounted device via the network into a signal in an original format.