Canadian Pacific Railway Signs Contract for ENSCO’s Patented DGRM Solution

PRLog (Press Release) – May 20, 2008 – Springfield, Va. — ENSCO announced today it won a commercial contract for its patented Deployable Gage Restraint Measurement System (DGRMS). This contract awarded by commercial railroad, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) further expands ENSCO’s foothold in the commercial railway market.

CPR awarded ENSCO the contract based on ENSCO’s patented and proven technology for testing track strength, a technology that locates bad ties and fasteners in the track. ENSCO and Plasser and Theurer of Linz Austria jointly developed the unique suspension that makes deployable GRMS possible in a railbound high-speed test car.

“Winning this contract shows the value that commercial railroad companies place on using advanced technology to improve safety and their operational efficiency. It also fulfills ENSCO’s goal to commercialize the deployable GRMS technology that was developed for the FRA DOTX 18 self-propelled inspection car,” states Project Manager Jeffrey Bloom, P.E.
About DGMRS

DGMRS finds weaknesses in track structure and reports the location for follow-up corrective action. A truly modern advancement for the rail industry, the DGRMS measures track strength at up to 50 mph and can cover entire territories in the time it would take walking inspectors to cover a few miles of track. Its predecessor, the GRMS, only worked at speeds up to 30 mph and used one of the rail vehicle’s running axles, which could lead to safety problems for the test car crew in the event of a broken rail.

The DGRMS measurement axle is a fifth axle deployed from the frame of a track inspection vehicle. The axle is attached to a custom suspension that can vertically load, raise and lower, and properly align it with the track. This suspension allows the axle to be suspended from the underside of a railroad car and operate separately from the four running axles. The DGRMS also improves measurement performance by using a lighter measurement split axle which responds quicker to changes in track conditions. The DGRMS will also provide CPR with a winter gage inspection system capable of measuring gage even when the tracks are covered in snow.
About Canadian Pacific Railway

Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canadian Pacific Railway is a Class 1 North American railway providing freight transportation services over a 14,000-mile network in Canada and the United States CPR ships commodities like grain, coal, lumber and potash as well as cars, agricultural equipment, home electronics, food and furniture.
About ENSCO’s Rail Transportation Group

For more than 30 years, ENSCO’s team of engineers has been leading the rail industry in developing new, advanced technologies for transportation. ENSCO systems help customers improve the safety, security and quality of their operations. As an active member of the railroad and transit research communities, ENSCO is committed to the creation, development and application of new technology to improve rail safety and performance, automated and autonomous inspection systems, Web-based data management systems, vehicle dynamics analysis and simulations, large-scale systems integration and other new products and services. The ENSCO name represents the rail industry’s premier source for track inspection, vehicle/track interaction monitoring and railroad asset management technology. The ENSCO-developed line covers technologies for every phase of rail operations.