What is it?

[frazpo]

As I drive a stretch of highway along a Kansas City Southern railway track I see a small building and a couple of towers on either side of the track. There is a thin wire frame that surrounds an area where the train travels through. What is that? Is that the monitoring station that broadcasts the axle count??

 

[ipfd320]

I Actually was Watching Modern Marvels on TV Last Week on RailRoads Edition-What You Described in The Post They Actually Showed a Similiar Bldg but had a Flat Panel Antenna Facing the Rail Bed Area with 1 Microwave Dish on the Bldg not that High Up which Counted the Rail Cars thru an Info Transponder Pack Mounted on Each Car-Each Pack has All Info on Car Numbers Weight and What Freight is in Each Rail Car

 

[kruser]

I Actually was Watching Modern Marvels on TV Last Week on RailRoads Edition-What You Described in The Post They Actually Showed a Similiar Bldg but had a Flat Panel Antenna Facing the Rail Bed Area with 1 Microwave Dish on the Bldg not that High Up which Counted the Rail Cars thru an Info Transponder Pack Mounted on Each Car-Each Pack has All Info on Car Numbers Weight and What Freight is in Each Rail Car

That would sure make it easy for theives to know which car has the 80 inch HDTV's in it! I must guess that the railroads encrypt that data for that very reason though.
I always did like hearing the trackside detectors telling me the train speed and axle count and what not but I guess I don't need to know what each car is carrying or which cars have the depleted Uranium in them!
I missed that episode darn it. I had the DVR set to auto record railroad related shows but that one went bad and they sent me a new one but I've not setup all my old timers yet. I guess I had better get out my timer list I made before I boxed up the old one and get them set!

 

[burner50]

Almost sounds like a really old Shifted load detector.

 

[burner50]

That would sure make it easy for theives to know which car has the 80 inch HDTV's in it! I must guess that the railroads encrypt that data for that very reason though.
I always did like hearing the trackside detectors telling me the train speed and axle count and what not but I guess I don't need to know what each car is carrying or which cars have the depleted Uranium in them!
I missed that episode darn it. I had the DVR set to auto record railroad related shows but that one went bad and they sent me a new one but I've not setup all my old timers yet. I guess I had better get out my timer list I made before I boxed up the old one and get them set!

That's not quite how it works.

The system reads a RFID tag (AEI tag) on the side of each car. All a thief would get is the car number. The mainframe populates the info with the rest of the data once the info is received.

 

[FrensicPic]

Almost sounds like a really old Shifted load detector.

I was thinking along those lines too.

 

[Mojaveflyer]

What Is It?

As I drive a stretch of highway along a Kansas City Southern railway track I see a small building and a couple of towers on either side of the track. There is a thin wire frame that surrounds an area where the train travels through. What is that? Is that the monitoring station that broadcasts the axle count??

I'm guessing it is a high - wide detector. It checks for loads that have shifted and are too high or wide and might strike another train or track side structure if it wasn't caught.