Listening out for trouble

CSX Transportation is piloting the use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), with support from the Federal Railroad Association (FRA) and the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), for track infrastructure health monitoring, train movement tracking, and rolling stock defect detection. DAS is a means of measuring vibration along an optic fiber cable and works much like sonar. With trials underway, it is expected that commercial systems will be available in the next few years.