Method and system of limiting the application of sand to a railroad rail

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A method and computer program product of limiting sand use in a railroad locomotive sanding system applying sand to railroad rails including a plurality of sand applicators for directing sand flow toward the rail. The method and computer program product may include steps of automatically controlling a flow of sand to limit the application of sand to situations in which applying sand to the rail would be effective to increase the adhesion of at least one of the railroad locomotive wheels on the rail by a predetermined incremental amount. The operation of each of the plurality of sand applicators may be independently controlled for selectively operating those sand applicators whose …