Autonomous detection of severe wagon-track interaction dynamics

Track geometry recording vehicles are the main way of detecting track surface problems. While these vehicles locate track surface problems they may not identify track locations that produce wagon-track interaction problems. The repeated traffic of similar type in heavy haul operation may create a series of wagon-specific track irregularities. If evenly spaced these irregularities can excite severe reactions in a wagon travelling at a critical speed. The size of irregularities "seen" by a heavily loaded wagon can be significantly greater than seen by a track recording vehicle. This paper presents an on-wagon, monitoring and reporting system for wagon-track interaction during routine heavy coal haulage operations.