Electronic Condition Detection System and Method for Railcars

A tank car having a tracking and condition detection system for hazardous commodity loads comprising:

• a) a body including a tank with a manway cover having a lid;
• b) a pressure sensor for measuring a pressure within the tank car;
• c) a proximity sensor mounted on the lid of the manway cover of the tank so as to detect when the lid of the manway cover has been opened;
• d) a microprocessor having a memory, said microprocessor and memory adapted to receive and store hazardous commodity emergency response data for a load;
• e) a transceiver in communication with the pressure sensor, the proximity sensor, and the microprocessor so as to receive condition data from the pressure sensor, the proximity sensor, and the hazardous commodity emergency response data from the microprocessor memory;
• and
• f) said transceiver adapted to transmit the condition data, the location data and the hazardous commodity emergency response data to a receiving station remote from the tank car.

A method for remotely tracking and determining a condition of a tank car containing a hazardous commodity comprising the steps of:

• a) detecting a leak in a tank of the tank car using a pressure sensor measuring the pressure with the tank of the tank car and a proximity sensor adapted to be mounted on a lid of a manway cover of the tank car so as to detect when the lid of the manway cover has been opened;
• e) storing emergency response data for the hazardous commodity contained in the tank car in a computer memory;
• f) providing data from the pressure sensor, the proximity sensor, and computer memory;
• g) transmitting the data from a transceiver to the pressure sensor, the proximity sensor, and computer memory to a receiving station remote from the tank car.