High-tech eyes check train 'fingerprints.' (CSX Corp. to use scanner to keep track of freight cars)

From: Science News | Date: July 20, 1991 | Copyright information

Sometime next month, a sophisticated scanner will begin helping a railroad company keep track of its freight cars. The system works by recognizing each car's distinctive features, says Robert Thibadeau, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Misplaced freight cars mean lost revenues, but cars do break down and get separate from their trains, so they don't always show up as scheduled. Railroad companies currently depend on employees to check car numbers as each train pulls into the yard. In addition, a small percentage of the 1.4 million freight ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

Ex-Pullman chairman re-enters rail world with Bethlehem deal
; ...manufactures a variety of freight cars except tank cars...haul coal. The Freight Car Division is the...Division because the freight car industry is emerging...manufactured more freight cars than were needed...year, Bethlehem's Freight Car division ...
Freight train offers metaphor for U.S. in global economy
; ...stage. Passing before me was freight car after freight car, almost all of foreign origin...are replaced by foreign freight cars. Inside these cars are the...and tariffs; just foreign freight cars and our empty buildings...watched the international freight ...
7 killed, 78 injured in Amtrak accident
; ...passenger train derailed and sideswiped a freight car this morning, killing at least seven...wobbled for an unknown reason and hit a freight car parked on a side rail. The Amtrak train apparently hit only one of several freight cars on the siding. The freight car cut ...
Train engineer stood his post ; More details emerge in rail crash Focus is on runaway freight car
; ...to react as a runaway freight car came barreling around...train into reverse, the freight car smacked the sitting...determine how the runaway freight car rolled nearly 3 miles...materials shipment. The freight car rolled downhill from...supposed to be moving ...
MBTA sues over commuter rail crash [Corrected 04/21/08] ; Says companies failed to secure 112-ton freight car
; ...take several basic safety steps to secure a freight car that got loose and crashed into a commuter train...out its theories on what caused the 112-ton freight car to escape from the Stoughton lumber yard, barrel...that day, failed to set a hand brake on the freight car while it was ...
50 years ago . . . From the December 1953 issue of Applied Hydraulics (the original title of H&P):
; Freight car weight transferred to a fluid...Hemco-Motive can switch and spot freight cars weighing more than 360 tons...hydraulic lift transfers freight-car weight to the wheels. While the weight of the freight car is being transferred onto...harming the coupler of the ...
FIRST UNION RAIL RIDES FAST TRACK.(BUSINESS)
; ...First Union bank subsidiary plans to buy an Illinois freight car company, making it the fourth-largest rail car firm...First Union Rail Corp., which owns about 10,000 rail freight cars leased to more than 80 railroads, has signed a definitive...an Arlington Heights, Ill., company that owns 3,100 ...
The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill., Vermilion County Business Column.
; ...call Odle at 442-4400. FREIGHT CAR SERVICES GETS NEW OWNER: A Danville freight car manufacturer Freight Car Services Inc., which manufactures...rebuilds and retrofits freight cars, was purchased by Johnstown...Fahrenwald. Those assets include Freight Car ...
FREIGHT CARS: INITIATIVE BY EUROPEAN RAILWAYS TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY
; ...computer application for the management of freight cars, which is based on the use of the Hermes...account demand for and availability of the freight cars in the Community. This application has...a joint venture for the operation of freight cars called Europ. On December 31, 1991 ...
Johnstown America joins freight car business.
; ...Johnstown America Corp. is a builder, lessor, and refurbisher of railroad freight cars. The acquisition includes the company's manufacturing facilities in Johnstown, Pa., Freight Car Services, Inc. in Danville, Ill., and the Chicago- based jaix Leasing...