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The railway companies are responsible for recording technology – and here particularly its main purpose is focussed on the pre-
the assurance of reliable rail infrastructure in video monitoring – have led to strong vention and elimination of faults.
that meets the needs of the customer, as technological progress in recent years. In
well as safe, cost-efficient and punctual op- the light of this, Plasser & Theurer offers The change in the perception of track re-
eration of the rail services. The main task track recording cars with non-contact re- cording cars has also been taken into ac-
of the infrastructure operator is to further cording technology and video monitoring count in international standardisation. For
improve the safety, cost-effectiveness and options for various sectors of the railway example the European standard EN 13848
availability despite constantly rising vol- infrastructure (Fig. 1). no longer defines any limit values for the
umes of traffic. Measured data provide an various measuring signals. Instead it de-
objective basis for decision-making. Nowa- fines intervention limits that enable the
days these basic figures are provided to a user to plan his maintenance schedule in
large percentage by track recording cars. 1 Principles good time and well in advance.
Plasser & Theurer is aware of the signifi-
cance of this and can offer its high com- The acceptance of track recording cars has The intervention limits are described ac-
petence and experience in finding the very changed dramatically in recent years. Origi- cording to EN 13848-5 in three stages. The
best solutions for the future. nally, the most important function of a track resulting course of action to be taken when
recording car was to detect and localise the signals are overstepped can be seen
A specific feature of railway infrastructure trouble spots in the track. The focus was from their designation:
is the long service life of the track com- placed on finding the anomalies and not on
ponents. However, the service life is only eliminating them. In many instances, the Stage 1: Alert Limit
achieved based on a suitable design of the role of the track recording cars had a nega- Stage 2: Intervention Limit
track and appropriate maintenance. Clear tive image. Stage 3: Immediate Action Limit
bases for decision-making must be drawn
up by a coordinated matrix of safety and Many railways have introduced a reversal of Apart from this fundamental change in at-
quality figures. Maintenance strategies are that trend. Track recording cars are used to titude, a trend towards the incorporation
developed on this basis that makes it pos- optimise visual inspection and the measur- of new sources of information is also ap-
sible to manage the track assets over a ing results are used as a basis for decision- parent. The railway administrations are in-
long period. Without comprehensible foun- making for sustainable asset management. creasingly setting store by video monitoring
dations it is very difficult to obtain the nec- Early detection of anomalies relevant to to reduce visual inspection on site. Over the
essary funds for maintenance and renewal. safety is also the function of the track re- past years the requirement that measuring
cording car. However, with consistent use signals always have to be reproducible has
The infrastructure operators have recog-
nised this and therefore particularly over
the past years there has been a change in
attitude towards track recording cars. Track
recording cars are no longer seen purely
as a safety instrument but provide, in the
broadest sense, the means to take the
right action at the right time. The change in
the importance of the track recording cars
and the new technological possibilities in
Marketing
Plasser & Theurer, Vienna
Fig. 1: Off-board computer screen showing synchronised video and track data
florian.auer@plassertheurer.com
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n Multi-function track recording cars
Theurer quality. These series-built vehicles General space requirements workplaces (Fig. 4) and measuring equip-
also meet the safety requirements speci- Measuring speed ment to be incorporated and thus raises
fied for rail traffic. Mainly standardised con- Staff requirements the cost-efficiency of each measuring run.
struction elements are utilised for design Room layout
and construction.
The standard track geometry measuring
All vehicles are fitted with low-emission die- system forms the basic equipment – all 6 Measuring and video systems
sel engines and two 2-axle bogies and with other installable measuring systems and/
either one or both bogies driven depend- or video recording units and combinations Not only in the field of vehicle design but
ing on the machine model. The measuring of these systems depend upon the size of also in the measuring systems the custom-
systems can be mounted on either of the the vehicle and the achievable space for er has the option of choosing from a wide
bogies. the computers and analysis units. range of standardised and well-proven sys-
tems. A selection of these possible meas-
The bogies utilised are a Plasser & Theurer At each of the evaluation terminals the uring systems can be seen in Table 1.
development and were designed specially measured data can be retrieved, displayed
for heavy axle loads and speeds of up to and printed out. However, an additional, The standard equipment of every Plasser
200 km/h. The engine outputs range from separate workplace is required to operate & Theurer track recording car includes the
190 kW on the EM 30 D weighing 21 metric the ultrasonic rail flaw detection system. non-contacting track geometry measuring
tons to a total engine output of 1200 kW on system with integrated GPS navigation and
the EM 160 weighing 80 metric tons. Self- For the average quota of planned measuring Dual OGM optical gauge measurement to
propelled machines offer independence runs, it is necessary to select a measuring measure, record and analyse the track ge-
and flexibility in operation. speed taking into account the length of the ometry.
track network, volume of traffic on the line
All Plasser & Theurer track recording cars and the track recording cars available. The This system measures the following param-
can of course be placed in train consists. self-propelled track recording cars travel at eters: longitudinal profile of left and right
For special track situations, the vehicles a maximum speed of up to 160 km/h and rail, alignment of left and right rail, track
can also be designed in narrow gauge or up to 200 km/h when hauled. gauge (dual measurement), cross level,
broad gauge. Diesel-electric generator sets twist, curvature and curve radius, gradient
provide the power supply on board; an unin- The vehicles are fitted with sound-insulated, and position using GPS.
terruptible power supply unit is installed ad- air-conditioned cabins and driver’s control
ditionally to protect the measuring and data desks for both directions of travel. Depend- The high-precision, maintenance-free track
processing systems. To gain space and at ing on the size of the vehicle, additional geometry measuring system is a leader in
the same time lower axle loads, large ve- facilities can be installed such as: confer- quality and availability. The results are used
hicles can be designed in two sections as ence corner, kitchen unit, sleeping berths, primarily for planning the tamping work.
"tandem vehicles" (EM140T und EM160T). washroom with shower and WC, workshop. From the analysis of the longitudinal profile
These vehicles can also travel on commuter In addition to the standard crew in the track signal, it is also possible to localise areas
railway systems and secondary lines with recording car, there are regional track in- with advanced ballast wear and areas with
low permissible axle loads and the entire spectors or other local staff on board for subsoil problems.
network can be measured using one track many operations. The space required is de-
recording car. For example, three track re- fined by the number of personnel. If the size The latest laser and video camera technol-
cording cars built by Plasser & Theurer are of the network and the planned operations ogy is applied to measure the profile and
in operation in New York City. require stays of several days for the crew on wear condition of the rails. The linear trans-
the recording car, then other facilities and ducer with laser transmitters and receiver
sleeping berths must be provided. cameras are mounted on one bogie of the
track recording car. The laser units are pre-
5 Criteria when selecting a track The location of the drive engine has a great cisely temperature stabilised, eliminating
recording car influence on the room layout. For reasons of the need to shield off ambient light from
space and comfort, it is preferable to install the measuring area on the rails. The receiv-
The following main criteria have an influ- the engine below floor level. The choice of er cameras capture full cross-sectional rail
ence on the choice of track recording car: a slightly larger vehicle (longer distance be- profiles from the base area to the top-of-rail
tween pivots), which allows the engine to be surface. Rail wear data are used for plan-
Type and number of measuring systems mounted under floor, will provide a far more ning rail exchange, the measuring signals
Number of workplaces generous room layout. This allows more for rail inclination and rail base distance are
good indicators for the condition of rail fas-
teners in tight track curves.
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Fig. 5: Modern
6.2 Tunnel clearance measurement ultrasonic probe wheels
(installed in rubber
wheels) are wear-free
The measuring system is designed for and have low water
checking the standard clearance gauge and consumption
also the lateral and vertical distances to
the adjacent track axis and to station plat-
forms. It consists of a rotating laser scan- different clearance envelopes in real time. the human eye. It is eye safe and not influ-
ner mounted on one end of the recording Infringements are shown in the clearance enced by ambient light.
car which measures the distance from the exception report. In curves, clearance pro-
scanner to the track surroundings and to files are automatically adjusted for vehi-
the track bed. Measurements are taken up cle-specific overhang using the curvature 6.3 Driver’s view video
to 9,000 times per revolution with a rate of measured by the track geometry measur-
up to 200 revolutions per second (Fig. 6). ing system. At the same time, the system It is useful to include the driver's view video
The measured data are stored lined-up with checks the ballast distribution along the for a variety of analysis applications. The
all other measuring data. The system is track. By simultaneous comparison of the fact is not surprising that the driver's view
now used increasingly for measuring over- actual ballast profile with up to three differ- video is extremely popular with the railways
head line (OHL) systems, as the results of ent ballast profiles, the software calculates despite its lack of complexity.
the laser measurement can also be used whether there is an excess or deficit of bal-
for OHL position measurement. last on any given location and gives the re- This video system records images of the
spective quantities. track, the track surroundings, and the cate-
The system software simultaneously com- nary wire structures, as seen by the driver
pares the measured data with up to three The laser system presents no danger to of the track recording vehicle (Fig. 7).One
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7 Summary
The importance of track recording cars has
risen continuously over the past years. In
the past it was primarily safety aspects
that defined the implementation of meas-
uring runs, but now it is increasingly also
aspects of quality management and the au-
tomation of inspections. As before, safety
threshold value exceptions will continue to
be displayed on board, but the collected
information, measuring signals, indicators
and video monitoring results now serve in-
creasingly as a basis for decision-making
for the maintenance and renewal work to be
carried out on the track and the overhead
line. This requires the application of robust,
high-precision and available measuring sys-
tems in combination with an appropriate on-
board and off-board analysis system.
Fig. 7: Application of the high-performance tunnel wall illumination system enables the video
system to be used in unlit or poorly lit sections of track
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