The Umler® system is the source of critical data for more than two million pieces of North American rail, steamship and highway equipment and serves as the base file for other standard industry equipment reference and management systems. It provides secure access for equipment management and reporting tools, helping equipment owners provide high-quality data to logistics partners and customers. 

The system identifies internal and external dimensions, capacities, weight information and other specific characteristics of freight cars — as well as intermodal trailers and containers. It is a powerful and dynamic tool for tracking the physical characteristics, transportation management and pool assignments of virtually every piece of rail equipment in North America and is used by stakeholders industry-wide for the safe and efficient placement, movement and interchange of railcars. 

The Component Tracking application enables manufacturers to register their component data so it can be associated with railroad equipment later in Umler. Using these applications, Railinc is able to track both components and equipment and thereby, also track recalls. Trackable components include: slack adjusters, brake valve control systems, side frames, bolsters, couplers, wheelsets and pressure relief values. 

Available APIs for the Umler system and Component Tracking have been listed below. 

Umler — Equipment Transaction

This feature offers customers the ability to add, modify or delete equipment in the Umler system.

Umler — Equipment Full View Query

This feature enables customers to query all of the equipment characteristic details of a given piece of equipment.

Umler — Equipment Selected Elements Query

This feature provides customers the ability to query all of the specific element details of a given piece of equipment. 

Umler — Blue Card Query

This feature allows customers to retrieve a Blue Card for a locomotive.

Component Tracking — Component Registry

This feature provides the ability to register, modify or delete components in the Umler Component Registry system. The process starts when the component is manufactured and has appropriate labels or when the component is assembled and has the appropriate bar code label with details on it. Once the component is manufactured or assembled, it is ready to be registered. The system validates submitted data, and if not valid, prompts the user for changes. If all validations are passed, registration is accepted and data is persisted into the system.

Component Tracking — Query Component by Component ID

This feature enables users to query a registered component by component ID.

Component Tracking — Query Component by Equipment ID

This feature introduces the ability to query by equipment ID affiliated with the component and the location of the component on the equipment.

Component Tracking — Query Component by Component Features

This feature provides the ability to query the following information:

  1. Wheelset query by wheel serial number, wheel stamped manufacturer code, wheel stamped year, wheel stamped month, wheel nominal diameter or wheel design code.
  2. Bolster query by bolster cast year or cast month (manufacturer or reconditioner plus pattern number or serial number).
  3. Sideframe query by sideframe cast year or cast month, (manufacturer or reconditioner plus pattern number or serial number).
  4. Coupler query by coupler catalog number, coupler cast month, coupler cast year or coupler serial number.

Component Tracking — Repair Reporting Service

This feature offers the ability to associate a component with a given equipment. Furthermore, this feature nullifies the previously reported component association (disassociating it from an incorrect application).

Component Tracking — EHMS Web Service

This feature facilitates existing EHMS customers reporting component association by reporting component ID (e.g., wheelset-registered ID in Component Registry), along with other repair information.