Skip to main content

McCain’s RRIP to boost public safety at railroad crossings

McCain has unveiled its innovative railroad interface panel (RRIP), which it says boosts public safety and operational efficiencies at railroad crossings in adherence with the proposed regulations for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) standard. The device serves as a single termination panel for railroad field wires and isolators in any traffic controller cabinet. Data collected from six inputs enables traffic agencies to easily monitor railroad status, initiate track clearances and place the sig
October 16, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
772 McCain has unveiled its innovative railroad interface panel (RRIP), which it says boosts public safety and operational efficiencies at railroad crossings in adherence with the proposed regulations for the 831 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) standard.

The device serves as a single termination panel for railroad field wires and isolators in any traffic controller cabinet. Data collected from six inputs enables traffic agencies to easily monitor railroad status, initiate track clearances and place the signal in flash should a fault occur.

Most railroad and traffic cabinet communications are manually wired in the field by traffic technicians,   cumbersome task that easily translates into lengthy installations, maintenance and troubleshooting calls, which ultimately cost taxpayers money. McCain's RRIP reduces the time required to establish communications and allows technicians to visually confirm wiring accuracy with LED status indicators. In addition, having a single system citywide rather than custom wiring at each crossing, makes maintenance faster and more efficient.

"Modern technology enables more and more data to be gathered at railroad crossings," said Douglas Acker, hardware engineering manager at McCain Inc. "We are proud to introduce a simple, yet elegant solution to enable agencies to leverage that data while circumventing the age-old issues surrounding custom wiring at railroad crossings."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Integrate systems to reduce roadside infrastructure
    January 27, 2012
    David Crawford reviews promising current developments. Instrumentation of the road infrastructure has grown to become one of the most dynamic sectors of the ITS industry. Drivers for its deployment include global concerns over the commercial and environmental pressures of traffic congestion, the importance of keeping drivers informed throughout their journeys, and the need to reduce accident rates and promote the safety of all road users, for example by enforcing traffic safety rules.
  • Transportation applications move to machine vision’s mainstream
    June 11, 2015
    The adaptation of machine vision to transport applications continues apace. That the machine vision industry is taking traffic installations seriously is evident by the amount of hardware and software products tailor-made for ITS applications that are now available on the market. A good example comes from US-based Gridsmart Technologies which has developed a single wire fisheye camera that provides a horizon to horizon view for use at intersections. Not only does the single camera replace four or more in a
  • Meeting the challenges of smartcard fare payment
    July 4, 2012
    David Crawford monitors a growing trend in contactless smartcard ticketing The north east United States has become a hive of activity in the smart fare payment arena. In October 2011, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) published, as a preliminary to an imminent procurement process, the detailed concept of its New Fare Payment System (NFPS). Based on open payment industry standards, this is designed to be implemented on all MTA bus and subway services operated by New York City Transit (
  • Cooperative road infrastructures - progress and the future
    February 1, 2012
    Robert Bertini, deputy administrator of the USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, discusses the research and deployment paths of cooperative road infrastructures. High-level analysis by the US's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the potential of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure/Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (V2I/I2V) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) technologies indicates that V2V could in exclusivity address a large proportion of crashes involving unimpaired drivers. In fact,