A controller is provided that can receive or determine at least one first location associated with at least a first vehicle belonging to a vehicle group; receive or determine at least one second location associated with at least a second vehicle; and determine a route or lane from a plurality of possible routes or lanes on which the vehicle group is located based at least partly on the at least one first location and on the at least one second location.

An autonomous railway track assessment apparatus includes: a railway track assessment platform including a boxcar including an enclosed space formed therein; one or more power sources located on the boxcar; a controller; a first sensor assembly in electronic communication with the controller oriented to capture data from the railway track; an air handling system located on the rail car, the air handling system including an air blower and a heater/chiller; a set of air ducts in fluid communication with the air handling system and the first sensor assembly for supplying heated or cooled blown air from the air from the handling system to the first sensor assembly. Data from the railway track is autonomously collected by the first sensor assembly controlled by the controller and such data is stored on the data storage device.

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.

A system and method include a control unit configured to detect a presence of a vehicle within a route area based on sensor signals output by an observer device that monitors the route area. The control unit is configured to determine a distance of the vehicle from the observer device and to determine a vehicle location of the vehicle based on the distance and a predetermined location of the observer device. The system and method include a communication device configured to communicate the vehicle location to at least one of the vehicle or a remote control device that is off-board the vehicle prior to the vehicle starting to move along a route occupied by the vehicle.

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.

A control system is provided that may include a first sensor configured to detect a vehicle system. The control system may also include one or more processors in communication with the first sensor. The one or more processors may be configured to receive communication related to entry of the vehicle system into an area, and operate the first sensor to begin monitoring the vehicle system in response to entry of vehicle system into the area. The one or more processors may also be configured to record movement data related to the vehicle system, and determine movement of the vehicle system within the area based on the movement data.

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 vehicle control system includes a controller that may receive location data points indicative of locations of a vehicle as measured by a location sensor. This controller may determine a distribution of the location data points and identify one or more of a route or a lane of a route in which the vehicle is disposed by comparing the distribution of the location data points to one or more characteristics of the one or more of the route or the lane of the route.

In order to position a set of one or more tools supported by a railway intervention vehicle progressing on a railway track, data is received characterising a curvilinear abscissa of a spatial indexation marker, a positioning of the spatial indexation marker with respect to a reference line of the railway track, and coordinates of points or lines of interest in a two-dimensional reference system. Transposition matrix cameras acquire transposition bitmap images in a spatial reference system of the transposition system. An odometer acquires progression data of the transposition system. Then the spatial indexation marker is identified as a function of the progression data and curvilinear abscissa data, to determine data characteristic of the spatial indexation marker and the reference line in the spatial reference system of the transposition chassis, and to calculate transposed coordinates of the points or lines of interest.