Third rail heater control system

A system for remotely controlling a plurality of ribbon heaters serially mounted along a length of a third rail of a railway, wherein each of the ribbon heaters has a plurality of heating elements along its length, comprising:

• a junction box located proximate to a third rail of a railway and having a door panel;
• a digital controller located remotely from the junction box;
• a switching assembly contained within the junction box including
• a plurality of electrically-controlled switches, each of which selectively switches electrical current from the third rail to the plurality of ribbon heaters;
• a switch controller including a programmable logic circuit that provides control signals to each of the plurality of electrically-controlled switches in response to switching commands received from the digital controller;
• current sensors that continuously provide a signal indicative of current flow through each ribbon heater to the wireless controller, and
• a safety switch that breaks electrical contact between the switching assembly and the third rail when the door panel of the junction box is opened.

A system for remotely controlling a plurality of ribbon heaters serially mounted along a length of a third rail of a railway, wherein each of the ribbon heaters has a plurality of heating elements along its length, comprising:

• a switching assembly located remotely from the digital controller and electrically connected to the third rail of the railway, including
• plurality of electrically-controlled switches, each of which selectively switches electrical current from the third rail to the plurality of ribbon heaters;
• a switch controller including a radio transceiver connected to a programmable logic circuit that provides control signals to each of the plurality of electrically-controlled switches;
• a power supply that provides power to the controller from electricity received from the third rail that has been converted into electricity having a voltage of about 30 volts or less;
• current sensors that continuously provide a signal indicative of current flow through each ribbon heater to the wireless controller, the current sensors being sufficiently sensitive to provide a signal indicative of a difference in current draw when one of the heating elements ceases to draw power and
• a digital controller remotely located from the junction box that includes a radio transceiver in communication with the transceiver of the switch controller, wherein the digital controller provides switching commands to the wireless controller and continuously records the current flow signals provided to the wireless controller from the current sensors.