DEVELOPMENTS IN TRACK CIRCUIT

CONDITION MONITORING

Andy Millar
Bombardier Rail Control Solutions, Plymouth, UK

The Need For Track circuit Condition Monitoring

All Other Failures

Track Circuit Failures

77%

Percentage of all mainline train delay minutes in London area

attributed to Track Circuit failures (2003-4)
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23%

Click to run a train

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What Is A Track Circuit? (1)

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What Is A Track Circuit? (2)

EBI Track 200 (TI21) Failure Modes From Frame Data

46%
24%

16%

TI21 Equip Fault

Other equip fault
Track fault
Unknown fault

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14%

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More Data Required

Track Circuit Failure Modes (1)

Minority of failures: many returned items of equipment are

No Fault Found
Commissioning failures
Lightning Strikes

Sudden, catastrophic, unpredictable

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Track circuit equipment faults

Track Circuit Failure Modes (2)

Cable damage (e.g. tamping)

Loose connections
Temperature effects
Signalling power supply failure

Often intermittent, can be hard to locate

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Associated equipment and connection faults

Track Circuit Failure Modes (3)

Wet ballast, due to seasonal or drainage issues large

proportion of failures
Leaf fall or drying ballast Wrong Side Failure

Slow changes
Track breaks

Intermittent, temperature or traffic

dependent

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Infrastructure faults

Tx/
Rx

Tx/
Rx

A1

Tx/
Rx

B1

Tx/
Rx

C1

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Tx/
Rx

Tx/
Rx

A2

Tx/
Rx

D1

Tx/
Rx

C2

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The Role Of Condition Monitoring Fault Localisation

The Role Of Condition Monitoring - Predictive

Decaying current
on blue channel
due to wet ballast

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Receiver input current monitoring

Practical Solution Constraints (1)

Wayside equipment cost

Limitations on access to monitoring points

Preferably not requiring track connections

Data Communication Infrastructure

Can potentially add high cost if infrastructure not already present

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Must be small fraction of track circuit cost (track circuit cost typically
1000 - 5000)

Practical Solution Constraints (2)

Relevance of output data

Knowledge base improvement

Output data format must be flexible to allow system development

Availability of output data

For both central logging and local maintenance

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Must be detailed enough to be useful, not so detailed as to be

potentially misleading

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Proposed Monitoring Points

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Typical Deduced Failures From Monitored Points

Increase in occupied track current during Autumn

Leaf fall
Variations in frequency imbalance on a 24 hour cycle
Tuning unit temperature problems
Intermittent periods of zero clear track current
Connection or rail break issues
Intermittent sudden reduction in clear track current
Sleeper insulation faults

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Decrease in clear track current September to May

Wet ballast conditions

 Using digital circuitry in modern track circuit equipment

gives condition monitoring measurement for free
Raw data made available in text format on RS232/485
port to allow formatting in customers equipment
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Implementing Condition Monitoring Within Equipment

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Practical Prototype GSM Monitoring System

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Or Very Low Cost Solution

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 Any Questions?

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Thank you for listening