Track Side Bogie Monitoring System

Introduction: Indian Railways at present does not use any automated system for real-time online monitoring of the performance of bogies and wheel-sets. Bogies are checked only during TXR examination for loose or broken parts. Wheel sets are changed when they reach the condemning limit. Problems like skew ness in bogie or asymmetric wheel-wear are attended to during preventive maintenance schedule only. Geometric faults in alignment and tracking of wheel are known to cause premature were as well as abnormal stresses. Re-profiling and replacing worn wheel sets constitutes a significant portion of rolling stock maintenance costs. Misaligned wheel sets are also responsible for increased fuel consumption and accelerated track deterioration. In developed countries state of the art on-line monitoring systems, such as the T/BOGI station, which measures angle of attack (AOA), and tracking position (TP) of each axle of a passing train. AOA and TP parameters combine to provide a planar description of the bogie, which is a distinct signature of a particular bogie that remains stable over time and distance traveled. Other parameters that characterize the performance of bogies, viz. inter-axle misalignment (IAM) and tracking error (TE) etc.