RAILROAD FLAT WHEEL DETECTORS

摘要

A railroad flat wheel detector having a housing anchored to one side of a railroad rail enclosing an arrayed plurality of light source-photodetector pairs whose respective optic axes are tangent to the locus of the lower rim edge of passing wheels rolling along the track. The photodetector outputs are operatively connected to trigger a flat wheel alarm when the increased wheel flange rim overlap with the supporting rail, caused by a flat sector of a passing wheel, obscures a portion of the light and thereby briefly reduces the light intensity sensed by one or more of said plurality of photodetectors.