Eastern Railroad Discussion > Tracking rail equipment for the non-professionals

This is a PSA for those who may need to track equipment moving via the rail network.   

I bought a caboose 2 years ago and had it moved about 600 miles via the rail system.   As the pickup date neared,  panic set in as I realized that I was at the mercy of the railroad to let me know where it was.  That wasn't going to happen,  so I researched and found this asset tracker so i could track it from home.  This. Was.  An. Absolute. Lifesaver.  No exaggeration.   Logistimatics was the company I bought it from and it only cost me $7.99 per month plus the purchase cost of $50 or so.  You can set it from your phone to ping once a day or once per hour and anything in between.   I was able to track my caboose which allowed me to get some photos in transit and informed me when it was sent astray.   
it affixes magnetically and was extremely reliable.   I highly recommend this for tracking railcars or any large metal object

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3G is going away starting in Feb 2022. Plenty of articles out there stating this. Good idea, but better be sure you purchase a 4GLTE or 5G tracker.

I wonder if an Apple Air Tag would work for this type of tracking. Ever since leaving an expensive pair of noise cancelling headphones "somewhere" while traveling, I now easily keep track of them with an Air Tag placed in the headphone case.  Instead of Bluetooth or GPS, it utilizes Ultra Wide Band technology and the existing network of Apple devices to relay the tag's exact location if queried by the "Find My..." function on an Apple iPhone or computer. The battery is supposed to last a year in operation; mine is still working after a year.  And the battery is a standard, common large watch battery. I've never heard of it being used to track a rail car, but auto thieves apparently are using them. The vehicle driver would receive a message that there was an Air Tag tracking them that was not one of their own devices. At $29, it might be a useful experiment.  Or at least some more reading up on them. 

yankeeclipper Wrote:
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> I wonder if an Apple Air Tag would work for this
> type of tracking. Ever since leaving an expensive
> pair of noise cancelling headphones "somewhere"
> while traveling, I now easily keep track of them
> with an Air Tag placed in the headphone case.
>  Instead of Bluetooth or GPS, it utilizes Ultra
> Wide Band technology and the existing network of
> Apple devices to relay the tag's exact location if
> queried by the "Find My..." function on an Apple
> iPhone or computer. The battery is supposed to
> last a year in operation; mine is still working
> after a year.  And the battery is a standard,
> common large watch battery. I've never heard of it
> being used to track a rail car, but auto thieves
> apparently are using them. The vehicle driver
> would receive a message that there was an Air Tag
> tracking them that was not one of their own
> devices. At $29, it might be a useful experiment.
>  Or at least some more reading up on them. 

Apple for it's part has provided a firmware update where if you do get a notification that a tag that is not your own is following you may disable it with your own app....of course if you find it....finders keepers, and "oops...I dropped it"...."double oops" I dropped this big rock on it!