3C RailFusion

It can be an expensive pill to swallow if your specialized railcar has been banned from the rails. That is what happened to numerous railcar owners that had three axle Buckeye trucks. 3C Telemetry has the technology to keep the railcars rolling.

The AAR came out with a circular C-9312 in 2001 to ban Buckeye triple axle trucks from interchange service starting January 1, 2004 because the center axle is shielded from the wayside hot-box detectors. The railcars would be allowed to continue operation if a bearing monitoring system was installed on the railcar.

Railroads have been getting telemetry data from their locomotives since the early 1990’s. The data provides railroads with critical information for many purposes including safety, operations, maintenance, and security.

Several competing GPS telemetry systems used cellular communications to transmit the data to the Internet where it could be processed by the railroads. The cellular communications providers have implemented technological advances to keep up with the demand for more data over the recent years, and earlier systems have gone obsolete.

3C Telemetry has developed a plug-and-play solution for railroads that have earlier 3G locomotive monitoring systems (i.e. Lat-Lon-RailRider) installed in their locomotives. The new system still uses cellular communications to send data to the Internet, but uses the newest LTE (long-term evolution) communications technology.

The new 3C Telemetry system has been enhanced with more inputs that can be utilized for monitoring locomotive parameters such as fuel level, coolant temperature, air pressure, traction motor current, horn, bell, and cab signals. The system has up to twelve (12) 72V digital inputs and up to eight (8) analog inputs.

Powerful customized reporting, mapping and email or SMS notifications can be set up for different events like low or high coolant temperature.

According to a Nation Wide Car Shipping article dated February 7, 2022, the most secure railcar in North America is the rail escort vehicle (REV). The railcar looks like a caboose but its isn’t. It is essentially an armored car on rails with surveillance equipment and advanced communications capabilities to keep the shipment of spent nuclear fuel safe. The Navy and the Department of Energy will be using the railcars to transport spent nuclear fuel to a geologic repository in the future.

3C Telemetry developed the onboard monitoring system for the railcar required by the Association of American Railroads (AAR). The AAR establishes rules and standards for the North American railroads.  The AAR has a performance specification for trains used to carry high-level radioactive material, known as S-2043.