The RAILS Initiative

A "hot box", is a situation where one of the many axle boxes of a wheel truck on a train has exceeded a certain temperature, due to inadequate lubrication or possible brake failure. This situation can lead to catastrophic failure when not addressed in a timely manner, requiring constant monitoring to prevent hot boxes. Current monitoring systems are attached to the train rails and are becoming inadequate due to various reasons. The RAILS team is proposing a solution to detecting hot boxes, by moving the monitoring system from the rails to the train itself. The innovative RAILS solution will implement energy harvesting technologies, creating an automated, self-powered monitoring system and will provide an easy to use software application for displaying data.