News

The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) recently hit a major milestone – wayside installation for their new positive train control (PTC) system is now substantially complete.  Installation of wayside equipment to enable PTC connectivity at 13 locations on two sides of the Mississippi River, including two bridges, paves the way for full integration testing.  In addition to this significant progress with PTC, TRRA also substantially upgraded their plant infrastructure by replacing legacy searchlight signal units with new LED colorlight units.  LED colorlight units provide greater visibility for train operators, and increased operational reliability and safety.  Additionally, Burns developed a unique design concept for TRRA that allowed them to update 5 outmoded relay-based interlocking locations.  The design interfaced the existing track and switch control circuitry into a new microprocessor system that is programmed with safety-critical interlocking logic.   To keep costs down, TRRA utilized existing equipment shelters to limit the wiring necessary for interfaces to existing equipment.  To effectively pass the signal data required for PTC, Burns designed a wireless network to communicate signal related data that includes control, indication and PTC status.  This strategy effectively relieved TRRA from adding additional cable for those functions, saving them significant capital on material and labor costs.  The project for PTC implementation is on schedule for completion before the FRA mandated December 2018 deadline.