Rail car tracking system

Abstract

A method and system for tracking a rail car having an on-board communication system including a location determining system and a transceiver for receiving and transmitting rail car data. The communication system including a processor responsive to an executable program for enabling operation of the transceiver to transmit rail car data during a reporting event and having a memory for storing data and instructions. The processor memory includes a remotely addressable software database accessible by the executable program for establishing a reporting event in response to at least one of a selected time, a change in geographical location, an extended time in a geographical location, an approach to a specified geographical location, a coupling/decoupling of the rail car with a particular locomotive and a command to report. The rail car includes an AEI reader attached to the rail car for reading AEI tags on other rail vehicles passing by the reader, the reader being in communication with the rail car message system for transmitting data indicating at least a location of the other rail vehicles.

1 . A rail car tracking system comprising: 
 rail car location equipment mounted to a rail car, the equipment including a transmitter for transmitting rail car location data to a remote receiver and further including an electronically readable tag attached to the rail car for identifying the rail car to a wayside tag reader; and    locomotive communication equipment mounted in a locomotive and adapted for communication with the rail car location equipment when the rail car and locomotive are coupled into a common train, the locomotive communication equipment being operative to identify the coupled rail car and including a transmitter for transmitting data to the remote receiver, the data including rail car data so that the required data transmission from the rail car transmission equipment is reduced.    
   
   
       2 . The rail car tracking system of  claim 1  and including a LAN for data transmission between the rail car and the locomotive.  
   
   
       3 . The rail car tracking system of  claim 2  and including a plurality of status sensors coupled to the rail car, each of the sensors providing data to the car location equipment transmitter for transmission via the LAN to the locomotive transmitter.  
   
   
       4 . The rail car system of  claim 3  and including locomotive systems monitoring equipment coupled in communication with the locomotive communication equipment for transmitting locomotive data to the remote receiver.  
   
   
       5 . The rail car system of  claim 4  wherein the remote receiver includes a rail car tracking interface for receiving data transmission from the rail car communication equipment, a locomotive tracking interface for receiving data transmitted from the locomotive communication equipment, a system interface for identifying railcars passing the reader and a central processing unit for extracting data from all the interfaces for identifying location of a rail car.  
   
   
       6 . An integrated rail car tracking system comprising; 
 a plurality of fixed wayside automatic equipment identification (AEI) readers spaced at predetermined locations along a railway for reading identification data from a AEI tags on rail cars passing along the railway;    a locomotive tracking system including an on-board GPS system for providing data indicative of the location of the locomotive and a transmitter for transmitting the location data to a remote receiver;    a rail car wireless message system attached to a rail car for sending periodic messages indicative of the location of the rail car, the message system including a GPS system for generating data indicative of rail car location; and    a local area network (LAN) established between the rail car and an associated locomotive whereby the rail car location data is transmitted to the locomotive tracking system for transmission to the remote receiver.    
   
   
       7 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 6  and including a remote data processor for processing data received by the remote receiver and for extracting from the data information identifying the location, speed and direction of travel of the associated rail car.  
   
   
       8 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 7  and including a plurality of status sensors mounted on the rail car, the sensors providing status data to the rail car message system for transmission to the remote receiver.  
   
   
       9 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 8  wherein the status sensors include one or more of door opening/closing sensors, pressure sensors, temperature sensors and cargo identification sensors.  
   
   
       10 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 8  and including programming operable in an on-board processor  28  for reading time and location from GPS for indicating dwell time without substantial movement.  
   
   
       11 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 7  and including data storage at the remote processor for storing data representing rail car scheduling, the processor comparing rail car data to rail car scheduling for providing data indicative of deviations from scheduling.  
   
   
       12 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 7  and including programming means operable in the rail car message system for transmitting periodic messages to the remote receiver and for transmitting status change messages to the remote receiver upon detection of a status change.  
   
   
       13 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 7  and including locomotive status sensors mounted in the locomotive and coupled to the locomotive communication system for providing data indicative of locomotive status to the remote receiver.  
   
   
       14 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 12  wherein one of the status change messages comprises a message indicating movement across a predetermined geographical boundary.  
   
   
       15 . The integrated rail car tracking system  7  and including a rail car battery saving function for reducing rail car transmissions when the rail car is coupled to the locomotive.  
   
   
       16 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 7  and including a rail car battery saving function for reducing rail car transmissions when the rail car remains stationary.  
   
   
       17 . A method for tracking a rail car having an on-board communication system including a location determining system and a transceiver for receiving and transmitting rail car data, the system including a processor responsive to an executable program for enabling operation of the transceiver to transmit rail car data during a reporting event, the method comprising providing a remotely addressable software database accessible by the executable program for establishing a reporting event in response to at least one of a selected time, a change in geographical location, an extended time in a geographical location, an approach to a specified geographical location, a coupling/decoupling of the rail car with a particular locomotive and a command to report.  
   
   
       18 . The integrated rail car tracking system of  claim 7  and including an AEI reader attached to the rail car for reading AEI tags on other rail vehicles passing by the reader, the reader being in communication with the rail car message system for transmitting data indicating at least a location of the other rail vehicles.