A damping element for a rail vehicle including a first section for fastening to a rail vehicle and a second section for introducing a force acting horizontally upon the rail vehicle. A monitoring system for the dampening element including a sensor attached to the dampening element for sensing a change in a distance between the first section and the second section, a data memory, a processing unit designed to determine information regarding the change in the distance and to store said information in the data memory and a local energy supply device for the autonomous supply of the processing unit.

A system is provided that includes a detection circuit having a first and second sensor. The first sensor is configured to measure a rotational speed of a first wheel. The second sensor is coupled to a vehicle chassis and configured to measure a position over time of the vehicle chassis. The system further includes a controller circuit configured to determine a shock frequency based on the position of the vehicle chassis. The controller circuit is further configured to determine a condition (e.g., an anomalous condition) of the first wheel based on the shock frequency and the rotational speed, and may be further configured for vehicle control based on the determined condition.

A system for exclusive track resource sharing is provided. Some embodiments provide an exclusive track resource sharing system including onboard control units and a resource manager. Onboard control unit is provided in each of trains and is configured to communicate with another onboard control unit in another train. The resource manager is configured to record ownership status information of track resources of the plurality of trains, to provide the ownership status information of the track resources to the onboard control unit, and to generate and deliver a resource entitlement or resource authority to the onboard control unit. The resource authority is configured to be owned by a single onboard control unit. The onboard control unit possessing the resource authority is configured to seize or release the track resources corresponding to the resource authority and to control the track resources corresponding to the resource authority.

A train monitoring device includes an obtaining unit to obtain device status information, a monitoring unit including an event detection definition, and an event detection program to interpret the event detection definition and check whether an event has occurred. When the event detection program monitors the status of the device, a first program included in the event detection program interprets and executes an intermediate language representation included in the event detection definition, and a second program included in the event detection program determines whether an event has occurred by using area information and storage information about a memory having stored therein a value that indicates whether an event has occurred, the area information and the storage information being included in the event detection definition. An output unit outputs an alarm indicating that the device is an anomalous status when the monitoring unit detects an anomaly in the device.

A system, method and assembly for detecting the operational status of one or more discharge gates on one or more railcars. The system and method monitor parameters that include whether the discharge gate is open or closed, whether the railcar is in motion or not, and whether the railcar is in a location where it is acceptable for the discharge gate to be open. Sensors carry out the monitoring, and the information obtained by monitoring the parameters are used to determine if a notification event has taken place and if so, a notification of such event can be transmitted to a remote receiver. A change in the status of any one of the monitored parameters can trigger the determination of whether a notification event has occurred.

A system and method for on-board or rail-side monitoring of train track, wheels, running gear, and other railway systems' component health by constant monitoring of acoustic, vibration, and potentially other modalities is described. These data are then processed to arrive at the track health data per track location, arrive at specific vehicle component health, and ride quality data from either passenger comfort or cargo damage protection of view.

A route examination system includes a thermographic camera configured to be logically or mechanically coupled with a vehicle that travels along a route. The thermographic camera is also configured to sense infrared radiation emitted or reflected from the route and to generate a sensed thermal signature representative of the infrared radiation that is sensed. The system also includes a computer readable memory device configured to store a designated thermal signature representative of infrared radiation emitted from a segment of the route that is not damaged. The system also includes an analysis processor configured to determine a condition of a first portion of the route relative to other portions of the route at least in part by comparing the sensed thermal signature and the designated thermal signature.

A health early warning system for passengers on a train in an outdoor air polluted environment and a method thereof are provided. The system comprises an air quality monitoring station data acquisition module, a train data acquisition module, a train air pollution prediction module, and a train air environment early warning module; the air quality monitoring station data acquisition module acquires data of air quality monitoring stations and uploads the data to the train air pollution prediction module; the train data acquisition module acquires data of the train and uploads the data to the train air pollution prediction module; the train air pollution prediction module performs short-term prediction on air pollution of the train and uploads a result of the short-term prediction to the train air environment early warning module; and the train air environment early warning module performs early warning on the health of the passengers on the train.

A control unit for controlling a rolling stock includes a user interface. The control unit is configured to receive, via the user interface, a plurality of user inputs corresponding to a plurality of users servicing the rolling stock, determine whether at least one user of the plurality of users remains servicing the rolling stock, and if at least one user of the one or more users remains servicing the rolling stock, prevent unauthorized movement of the rolling stock. Other example control units, computer systems including one or more control units, and computer-implemented methods for preventing unauthorized movement of a rolling stock are also disclosed.

Provided is a monitoring system that can find abnormality in a device that supports a vehicle body of a railway vehicle during running at an early stage. The monitoring system for the railway vehicle includes a detector and a determiner. The detector detects a pressure A1 of a first air spring, a pressure A2 of a second air spring, a pressure A3 of a third air spring, and a pressure A4 of a fourth air spring of the railway vehicle during running. The first, second, third, and fourth air springs are respectively disposed on right front, left front, right rear, and left rear sides in a running direction of the railway vehicle. The determiner determines abnormality from a relation between a magnitude of diagonal imbalance P obtained from a formula (1) or (2) below and a mileage or elapsed time of the railway vehicle.
P=(A1−A2)−(A3−A4)  (1)
P=(A3−A4)−(A1−A2)  (2)