Wheelset maintenance and monitoring: Current practices and strategies

Abstract

Railway wheelsets are a central component of railway vehicles. Maximizing the lifespan of wheelsets requires proper health monitoring and maintenance strategies. From a background in deterioration phenomena and the operational conditions of railway vehicles, this project gives an overview of maintenance and monitoring within the railway industry. This has been done through interviews with and visits to multiple industry actors. Practices within monitoring, maintenance, and possible business plans are highly variable, depending on operating conditions, involved actors, and the size and uniformity of the fleet. Potential benefits could be achieved through more cooperation and data sharing between actors, however this brings new challenges.