Rail buckle detection and risk prediction

A system for predicting a risk for rail buckling in a railroad track, the railroad track including rails connected by ties and supported on ballast, comprising:

• a forward-facing camera mounted on a locomotive of a train traveling on the railroad track, the forward-facing camera being configured to capture images of the railroad track ahead of the locomotive, and to assess the condition of the ballast;
• a thermal camera mounted to the locomotive and configured to measure a temperature of the rails;
• and
• an event recorder onboard the locomotive and in communication with the forward-facing camera and the thermal camera, the event recorder being configured to receive data from the forward-facing camera and the thermal camera, the data including the temperature of the rails from the thermal camera, and the images and the condition of the ballast from the forward-facing camera, the event recorder being further configured to predict a risk for rail buckling at a section of the rails at least based on the temperature of the rails and the condition of the ballast at the section of the rails.

A method for detecting buckled rail and for predicting a risk for rail buckling in a railroad track, the railroad track including rails connected by ties and supported on ballast, comprising:

• receiving data from a forward-facing camera mounted on a locomotive traveling on the railroad track, the data including one or more images of the buckled rail and dimensions of the buckled rail when the forward-facing camera detects the buckled rail, the data further including one or more images of the ballast, and condition of the ballast;
• receiving data from a thermal camera mounted to the locomotive, the data including temperatures of the rails;
• transmitting an alarm signal to a display interface of a remote unit if the dimensions of the buckled rail meet a predetermined threshold;
• predicting a risk for rail buckling at a section of the rails based at least on the temperatures of the rails and the condition of the ballast at the section of the rails;
• and
• transmitting the predicted risk for rail buckling at the section of the rails to the display interface of the remote unit if the predicted risk is above a predetermined threshold.