Design and testing of an intelligent anti-runaway rail-shoe control system

Conventional anti-runaway rail shoes (wheel chocks) used for rail vehicles are difficult to monitor in real time, labor-intensive to operate, and prone to operational errors such as incorrect placement/removal and missed placement/removal. To address these limitations, this paper presents an intelligent anti-runaway rail-shoe control system. A visual monitoring platform is installed in the locomotive cab and in the control rooms of marshalling yards and section stations, providing real-time status indication for rail-shoe management. Compared with traditional rail shoes, the proposed system wirelessly transmits key state information—such as on-rail status, wheel-contact (loaded) status, and lock status—to the monitoring platform. In addition, an active light-emitting alarm helps operators quickly locate installed shoes, thereby reducing the likelihood of missed placement/removal. Functional tests were conducted with reference to railway rail-shoe management requirements and representative field operating scenarios. The results demonstrate that the proposed system meets the requirements for on-site railway anti-runaway operations.