Intro to Railcar Maintenance and Inspection – Wheel Bearings

Welcome to the American Railroading Podcast! In this episode, we'll be discussing some fascinating insights about railcar maintenance, inspection and technology. We also will highlight the important role that wheel bearing inspection and monitoring plays in overall railcar safety. Did you know that railcar maintenance providers are considered a part of the railway supply industry, supporting approximately 240,000 direct jobs, and that for every 1 job in the railway supply industry, it creates another 1.9 jobs in other industries?  With approximately 1.6 million railcars in the United States, most of which are in use, maintenance is critical to ensuring safety.  Despite significant improvements in safety, voluntary actions and new technologies are still necessary to further improve safety. Predictive tools like vibration monitoring and onboard monitoring using wireless sensors on railcars can provide continuous or periodic data for better maintenance scheduling and safer operation.  And that's just a sneak peek of what we will be talking about on this episode! Join us on this exciting journey to learn more about the fascinating world of railcar maintenance, inspection and technology. KEY POINTS: The podcast has skyrocketed to just within the top 10% of podcasts in the first week of episode one being released.This episode will touch on information about railcar maintenance, inspection and technology, as an introduction, if you will. Being such a vast subject, it will take multiple episodes, potentially years of episodes to get through the subject matter.Railcar maintenance providers are considered a part of the railway supply segment of the industry. The railway supply industry supports approximately 240,000 direct jobs and every job in the railway supply industry creates another 1.9 jobs in other industries.There are approximately 1.6 million railcars in the United States, most of which are in utilization, and all railcars will need maintenance at some point.Railcars are highly regulated for compliance. Tank cars, as an example, are required to be brought in to an AAR certified facility for regulatory compliance inspection for HM216b qualification, which is typically done every ten years for general purpose tank cars and every five years for a pressure tank car.Inspection of railcars requires an individual who is extremely knowledgeable of not only all applicable regulations, but also all railcar owner’s requirements as well.The Association of American Railroads has been using technology like positive train control (PTC), sensors, analysis, and adaptation of protocols to ensure overall safety.Although safety on railroads has made significant improvements, per the AAR President and CEO, voluntary actions and new technologies are needed to further improve safety.Predictive tools like vibration monitoring have been used in the industry for the last 30 years to get ahead of premature indications of failure.Onboard monitoring using wireless sensors on railcars can provide continuous or periodic data for improved maintenance scheduling and safer operation.Remote monitoring equipment (RME), or remote condition monitoring (RCM), has been around for decades and needs to go through an approval process by the Association of American Railroads (AAR)