Fill level monitoring

An assembly for monitoring the fill level of a sandbox of a sanding system in a rail vehicle, the assembly comprising:

• a sanding system arranged in an autonomously operated rail vehicle with no driver, said sanding system having a sandbox, a sand-conveying system, and a pipeline;
• wherein said sandbox is connected to said pipeline via said sand-conveying system;
• said sand-conveying system being configured for activation by a compressed-air pulse, wherein an already known amount of sand is removed from the sandbox per the compressed-air pulse and passes into a wheel-rail gap of the rail vehicle in a sand-and-compressed air mixture via said pipeline;
• and
• a process controller connected to a stationary process control station and configured to display a current sand fill level at the process control station and to identify faults at the sanding system by inference from a reduced or an increased use of sand during an operation of the rail vehicle.

A method for monitoring the fill level of a sandbox of a sanding system, the method which comprises:

• providing an assembly with a sanding system of a rail vehicle which is operated autonomously without a driver, and the sanding system has a sandbox, a sand-conveying system, and a pipeline, and wherein the sandbox is connected to the pipeline via the sand-conveying system;
• selectively activating the sand-conveying system by a compressed-air pulse to remove an already known amount of sand from the sandbox per compressed-air pulse and to pass the sand into a wheel-rail gap of the rail vehicle in a form of a sand-and-compressed air mixture via the pipeline;
• using a process control system of the rail vehicle to determine a number of the compressed-air pulses used for the activation, to determine an amount of sand dispensed via the number of the compressed-air pulses, and, starting from an already known sand fill level of the sandbox and the amount of sand dispensed, to determine a current sand fill level of the sandbox;
• communicating remaining amounts of sand remaining at the rail vehicle from the process control system via a remote connection to a landside process control station in order to display the current sand fill level at the landside process control station;
• and
• identifying faults at the sanding system by inference from a reduced or increased application of sand during an operation of the rail vehicle.