MTA's Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road have plans for a train monitoring system that would detect defective or overheated wheels and loads of freight trains that operate on publicly owned tracks. The information would then be conveyed in real time to the railroads’ control centers. “This specialized equipment will improve safety and reduce wear and tear on our tracks,” said Thomas F. Prendergast, Chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, parent agency of the two railroads. “They are intended to identify faults before they cause problems.” The equipment, known as a Train Fault Detector System, consists of three components, a wheel impact detector that recognizes flat spots and other wheel defects, a “hot box” detector that assures that all the roller bearings around the axles are rolling properly and not overheating, and a tag reader that identifies individual freight cars.
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