A method and a system (30) for inspecting and/or mapping a railway track (18). The method comprises: acquiring geo-referenced rail geometry data associated with geometries of two rails (20) of the track along the section; acquiring geo-referenced 3D point cloud data, which includes point data corresponding to the two rails and surroundings of the track along the section; deriving track profiles of the track from the geo-referenced 3D point cloud data and the geo-referenced rail geometry data; and comparing the track profiles and generating enhanced geo-referenced rail geometry data and/or enhanced geo-referenced 3D point cloud data based on the comparison.

A method for measuring and displaying the track geometry of a track system uses a track-driveable permanent-way machine, comprising a control measurement system measuring the track position to be corrected before a lifting and lining device, an acceptance measurement system measuring the corrected track position after it, and output units displaying the measured values. The lifting and lining device is controlled depending on the measured values of the control measurement system and the acceptance measurement system to achieve a specified target track geometry. A three-dimensional position image is calculated from the curvature image (k.sub.(s)), longitudinal level image (h.sub.(s)) and superelevation image (u.sub.(s)) of the target track geometry, put into a perspective display, and displayed by the output unit, supplemented by measured error curves for track parameters of track direction, superelevation, twist, and longitudinal level.

In one embodiment, a railroad scout vehicle system includes a scout vehicle and a processing unit. The scout vehicle may include at least two wheels configured to engage a set of railroad tracks, a motor mechanically coupled to at least one of the wheels, a speed controller, an electromagnetic sensor aimed at the set of railroad tracks, a positioning receiver, a local speed sensing device and a transceiver. The speed controller may be coupled to the motor and configured to control the speed of the scout vehicle in order to maintain an appropriate distance between the scout vehicle and a train traveling behind. The processing unit may be configured to transmit the track status information via the transceiver, receive train speed and position signals from the train via the transceiver.

Disclosed is a gradient information acquisition method comprising: a speed measured value acquisition step in which a measured value of the speed of a rail vehicle is acquired; a speed calculation step in which a calculated value of the speed of said vehicle is found using an equation of movement including a parameter indicating the gradient of the path of travel of said rail vehicle; a parameter value acquisition step in which a parameter value is found of a function indicating said gradient, for which parameter the difference of said measured value of the speed and said calculated value of the speed is a minimum; and a gradient information acquisition step of finding the gradient of said path of travel, based on the parameter value of the function indicating said gradient that was acquired in said parameter value acquisition step.

Rail vehicle (1) having rail wheels (3,4) accommodated to guide the rail vehicle along a railway track (2) and said vehicle comprising means for detection of a flaw or flaws in the railway track, wherein the rail vehicle is provided with a noncontact vibrometer (9,10) which is arranged to measure vibrational movement of the railway track surface.

A rail position measurement device that measures a three-dimensional position of a rail using a measurement vehicle includes: a position posture measurement device to measure a position and a posture of the measurement vehicle; and a laser scanner that is a sensor installed on the measurement vehicle so as to be capable of irradiating at least a web and a bottom of a side surface of the rail with laser light and used for measuring the three-dimensional position of the rail.

The present invention defines a method of determining a vertical profile signal of a rail surface that includes, obtaining a vertical acceleration signal acc.sub.1, by measuring vertical acceleration of a bogie of a rail vehicle that runs on the rail surface; processing the vertical acceleration signal to obtain a vertical velocity signal; determining the vertical profile signal of the rail surface, by using the vertical acceleration signal and the vertical velocity signal as inputs to a simulation model of the bogie, the model having an unsprung mass connected to a sprung mass, the vertical acceleration signal acc.sub.1 represents the vertical acceleration of the unsprung mass; and measuring a linear velocity signal of the rail vehicle, the linear velocity signal is used in the step of determining to convert the vertical profile signal from the time domain to the distance domain.

A system for detecting and pre-warning railway roadbed deformation includes: a control box and an optical fiber-pressure sensor group. The optical fiber-pressure sensor group is formed by disposing a plurality of optical fiber-pressure sensors into a cuboid shape, and is buried in the railway roadbed for detecting magnitude of roadbed deformation in each direction. The direction of the deformation can be acknowledged easily, allowing the staff to eliminate potential risks purposefully. A time series prediction algorithm is performed to forecast a trend of the roadbed deformation in each direction, such that the staff may purposefully overhaul and correct the tracks where the roadbed is deformed excessively. At the same time, the staff may overhaul the track before the magnitude of the roadbed deformation reaches a predetermined value. Potential safety hazards may be eliminated in advance, ensuring the safety for the operation of the railroad.

A Railroad Tie Management System is disclosed that can provide an efficient and organized method of inspecting and auditing ties in a rail system. Tie mark files can be retrieved by a client from a server or database in operable communication with the client, and upon instantiation of an inspection process governed by the system, an inspection information table and tie grid can be generated. The tie grid can operable to receive commands from a user, and the inspection information table is operable to automatically increment and decrement fields contained within in response to changes within the tie grid. The tie grid can also be configured to incorporate data from tie scans and serve the data to the client in a useful and user-friendly manner.

Examples relate to digital context aware (DCA) data collection. In some examples, a DCA start location component is positioned at a first location along a travel route, and a DCA end location component is positioned at a second location along the travel route. In response to using a wireless interface to detect the DCA start location component, data collection of measurements by a sensor are initiated. In response to using the wireless interface to detect the DCA end location component, the data collection by the sensor is halted.