Wayside monitoring of metro lines

A case study of need, development and implementation of a Wheel Condition Management System. Wayside monitoring was implemented in an Australian metropolitan area in Australia in response to rail damage and environmental concerns. Wheel condition monitoring was well established in the freight industry but the implementation on a suburban network highlighted unique problems and requirements. The successful implementation of a Wayside Monitoring System required changes to instrumentation and the strategies for using the data that is produced by these instruments (see Fig 1). These modifications included classic "process" control and improvement methods that involved engineers for the rolling stock division working closely with the repair centres. The program included the initial recovery and control phases, the search for root cause (see Fig 2), the steady state management phase and finally the new early intervention strategies that involve using a "step-change" alarm method. The manner in which minor wheel defects were repaired also changed - these changes included the introduction of trim blocks to service the wheels when early "minor" wheel defects were detected thus avoiding the need for wheel machining. The introduction of Wayside Detection has included a significant reduction in rail damage, noise pollution, the rail network now exhibits fewer new wheel defects and has resulted in the improved passenger comfort and perception of quality of the system by all stakeholders.