Railcar maintenance management system

• US 6,437,705 B1
• Filed: 11/29/2000
• Issued: 08/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wells Fargo Dealer Services Incorporated (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Donahue, Timothy P., Barich, Daniel M., Barich, David J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hofsass, Jeffery
• Assistant Examiner(s): GOINS, DAVETTA WOODS
• Application Number:
  US09/725,614
• Publication Number:
  US 20020101361A1
• Time in Patent Office: 629 Days
• Field of Search: 340/907, 340/933, 340/909, 340/910, 246/1.R, 246/5, 246/13-14, 246/169.R, 246/168, 701/19, 701/20, 105/26.1, 104/26.1, 104/27
• US Class Current: 340/907
• CPC Class Codes: B08B 9/08 Cleaning containers, e.g. tanks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and a method for managing the repairing, cleaning, painting, or otherwise maintaining of railcars within a railcar maintenance facility. Specifically, the present invention relates to a railcar maintenance management system and method for maintaining railcars within a facility wherein the facility has an inbound track, an outbound track, and a plurality of maintenance stations for moving a railcar in and out of the facility and for repairing, cleaning, or painting the same. Further, the railcar maintenance management system and method allows for efficient movement of railcars through the facility by queueing the railcars at strategic locations within the railcar facility.

Claims

1. A Railcar Maintenance Facility Management System comprising:

a railcar maintenance facility having a plurality of maintenance stations;

a first maintenance station within the railcar maintenance facility;

a first railcar requiring services of the first maintenance station;

a first communication means associated with the first maintenance station wherein the first communication means signals to an operator of the maintenance facility whether the associated first maintenance station is available or unavailable to accept the first railcar and further if unavailable, then the first railcar is not released into the railcar maintenance facility;

a second maintenance station within the railcar maintenance facility;

a second railcar requiring services of the second maintenance station and further wherein the second railcar does not require the services of the first maintenance station wherein the release of the second railcar into the maintenance facility is independent of whether the first maintenance station is available to accept railcars.

2. The systems of claim 1 further comprising:

a second communication means associated with each maintenance station for signaling whether each maintenance station is available or unavailable to accept railcars requiring services of each maintenance station.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an inspection area for sorting railcars by their type and maintenance needs.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a first queue area wherein the first queue area stores railcars waiting for a first maintenance station to become available.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first maintenance station is an interior blast station for removing interior linings from the railcars.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an inbound queue area within the facility for holding railcars prior to entering the maintenance facility.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of bays within the first maintenance system for holding a plurality of railcars requiring the services of the first maintenance station wherein the first communication means communicates whether the bays are available or unavailable to accept railcars.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first communication means comprises a red light and green light.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the green light communicates that the particular maintenance station is available to accept railcars.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the red light communicates that the particular maintenance station is unavailable to accept railcars.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the maintenance stations comprise a first set of repair stations wherein railcars may be repaired and a second set of stations wherein a railcar may be painted.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the first communication means comprises a red light and a green light wherein the red light indicates that railcars requiring the services of the first maintenance station should not be released into the maintenance facility and further wherein the green light indicates that the first maintenance station is available to accept railcars.

13. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a designation removably attached to the railcars to communicate the maintenance needs of the railcars.

14. A railcar maintenance facility management system comprising:

a railcar maintenance facility comprising an inbound railway, an inbound queue area, a transfer area, a first set of maintenance stations, a second set of maintenance stations and an outbound railway;

a first communication means connected to each maintenance station within the first set of maintenance stations wherein the first communication means communicates whether each maintenance station within the first set of maintenance stations is available to receive a railcar requiring services of the first set of maintenance station; and

a second communication means connected to the second set of maintenance stations wherein the second communication means communicates whether the second set of maintenance stations is available to receive a railcar requiring services of the second set of maintenance stations and further wherein the second communication means communicates to an operator of the maintenance facility whether the railcar requiring the services of the second set of maintenance stations should be accepted into the maintenance facility.