Patent ID: 7765859

Claim:
A system for determining brake shoe effectiveness of a braking arrangement of a train during operation of the train, wherein the braking arrangement comprises at least one brake shoe mechanism configured to directly or indirectly contact at least one wheel of the train and retard rotation of the at least one wheel, the system comprising: at least one brake database comprising braking data including at least one of the following: braking arrangement data, brake shoe force data, brake shoe friction data, brake application time data, brake application level data, brake retarding force data, brake shoe type data, brake thermal characteristics data, braking ratio data or any combination thereof; at least one train database comprising train data including at least one of the following: wheel data, rail data, train position data, car position data, train speed data, track data, track location data, track curvature data, track profile data, track grade data, train weight data, car weight data, train length data, car length data, environmental data, authority data or any combination thereof; and a control system in communication with the at least one brake database and the at least one train database, the control system configured to dynamically determine brake shoe effectiveness data as a result of brake shoe fade and based upon the braking data and the train data, the brake shoe effectiveness data comprising the ability of the braking arrangement to retard the train to a specified level, and wherein the determination occurs during operation of the train.