Abstract: The invention provides computing devices and systems for railroad control and automation in railyards and on rail lines. A computing device has a housing having a front, a back, a top, a bottom, an exposed side, and an unexposed side, as well as an interior. The interior of the housing is adapted to support a communications bus, a processor board with a digital signal processor having memory thereon coupled to the communications bus. The memory stores a unique device identification. Additionally in the interior is an input/output board coupled to the communications bus, and a user-interface board coupled to the communications bus. The front has a user-viewable screen adapted to display a plurality of alphanumeric characters, and a user-interactive input device adapted to allow a user to scroll through alphanumeric data displayed on the screen.

Abstract: The invention provides railroad path optimization method. The method determines whether at least one switch machine from a plurality of switch machines is occupied in the at least one route and detects at least one unavailable route if the at least one switch machine is occupied. Further, the method identifies at least one desired route and at least one available route associated with an origin point and at least one desired route and at least one available route associated with a destination point to identify at least one available route for the destination point. Based on the identified available route, the method predicts the at least one optimal route and ranks the at least one predicted optimal route to enable selection of a final optimal route for travel.

Abstract: Disclosed are a railroad switch device for moving railroad switch points. The railroad switch device comprises a switch housing having a first switch operation unit coupled to a first spring unit and a second switch operation unit coupled to a second spring unit to move the first switch operation unit and the second switch operation unit independently; two sensing units, each connected with each of the first switch operation unit and the second switch operation unit to detect a connection status of the first switch operation unit and the second switch operation unit; and a hydraulic manifold to control the movement of the first switch operation unit and the second switch operation unit.

Abstract: The invention provides a track sensor system for a railroad. The track sensor system includes a track sensor device has, in its interior, a first actuator coupled to a first inductor via a first actuator shaft, and a second actuator coupled to a second inductor via a second actuator shaft. A power system provides power distribution to the actuators and inductors. An input/output communications and railroad computing device provide independent or additional functionality to the track sensor system.