Finding pennies IN the rail

Organizers are already on the ground in Las Vegas putting the finishing details on what has to be the most in-depth, collegial, and informative rail industry conference around. Of course, I'm talking about Wheel-Rail Interaction.

Trains Magazine is entering a fifth year as WRI's presenting sponsor. And it's my fourth year covering the conference.

And what a conference. May I say that my first year, in 2013, my head hurt from absorbing information they don't remotely begin to teach in liberal arts programs: plastic deformation, rail neutral temperatures, rail cant, and — famously — magic wear rates. All of the presentations and seminars are based on studying or improving the interactions of flanged wheels on steel rails. As I've come to appreciate, that interaction — a one quarter-inch-sized contact between train and track — affects ride quality, rail wear, what noise you hear (or don't), and maintenance routines. Good wheel rail interaction can even prevent while a poor connection can cause a derailment.

That's deep. And WRI is the conference where the world's experts on wheel and rail interactions congregate to go deep on this topic. More than 200 engineers, engineering supervisors, suppliers, and operations folks will attend from North America and Europe. A few occasionally stop by from Australia and Africa. I could name-drop a few of the railroad luminaries who have attended, but I'll wait until I can interview them for you next week.

Until then, all you need to remember is that wheels and rails are important.

How important? Wheels and rails are so important, that savings on them can change numbers on a Class I railroad's financial statement.

In an era when revenue is scarce, every penny counts that much more. You might say that efficiency and optimization strategies taught at WRI are akin to finding pennies in the rails. Pennies that mean millions in the right hands.