A particularly flexible method for automatically calibrating a wheel sensor includes using the wheel sensor to determine that a calibration must be carried out. The wheel sensor determines a point in time suitable for carrying out the calibration and the calibration itself is carried out by the wheel sensor at the determined point in time. A wheel sensor for carrying out the method is also provided.

A method for assembling a strain gauge arrangement for an axle counter, includes: a strain sensor element; a carrier, to which the strain sensor element is fastened; and a railroad track structure to be monitored. When the carrier is fastened to the structure at least a part of it is kept in an elastically deformed state. The carrier is embodied with a first carrier piece opposing a second carrier piece. The strain sensor element is fastened to the first carrier piece with a first fixing point, to the second carrier piece with a second fixing point, and to neither the first nor the second carrier piece with a central section between the fixing points. At least the part of the carrier is elastically braced by means of a bracing element for when adhesively bonding to the structure to be monitored. Thereafter the bracing element is removed.

A rail contact element for drop off detection is disclosed, wherein the rail contact element is mountable to a rail and includes a spring element, a main body which holds the spring element and an optical fiber. The spring element is in a tension state or in a relax state depending on a mounting state of the rail contact element. The optical fiber includes an outlet surface for emitting a light beam and the rail contact element further includes a reflector element. The spring element, the reflector element and the optical fiber are arranged so that the influence of the reflector element on the light beam is different in the tension state than in the relax state.

A method for assembling a strain gauge arrangement for an axle counter, includes: a strain sensor element; a carrier, to which the strain sensor element is fastened; and a railroad track structure to be monitored. When the carrier is fastened to the structure at least a part of it is kept in an elastically deformed state. The carrier is embodied with a first carrier piece opposing a second carrier piece. The strain sensor element is fastened to the first carrier piece with a first fixing point, to the second carrier piece with a second fixing point, and to neither the first nor the second carrier piece with a central section between the fixing points. At least the part of the carrier is elastically braced by means of a bracing element for when adhesively bonding to the structure to be monitored. Thereafter the bracing element is removed.

A strain gauge arrangement for an axle counter has a strain sensor element, a carrier and a railway line structure that is to be monitored. At least one part of the carrier is maintained in an elastically deformed state by the structure when the carrier is secured to the structure. The carrier is formed from a first carrier piece and a second carrier piece, which lie opposite one another at a distance from one another. The strain sensor element has one first fixing point fixed to the first carrier piece, and one second fixing point fixed to the second carrier piece, and a middle section mounted between the fixing points which are not fixed to the first or second carrier piece. The strain gauge arrangement is simple to handle and a drop can be reliably detected and a strain state of the strain sensor element can be predetermined more easily.

A method for monitoring a railway track may include: detecting a first monitoring signal by a distributed acoustic sensor at an initial position while a rail vehicle passes the initial position, the distributed acoustic sensor being arranged along the track; detecting a second monitoring signal by the distributed acoustic sensor at least one predefined position along the track while a rail vehicle passes the predefined position; and comparing the first and second monitoring signals with each other. The first monitoring signal includes features that each relate to one axle of the rail vehicle passing the initial position. The second monitoring signal includes features that each relate to one axle of the rail vehicle passing the predefined position. The comparing includes counting the features relating to axles of the respective passing rail vehicle for the first and second monitoring signals. Furthermore, a monitoring unit may monitor a railway track.

A strain gauge arrangement for an axle counter has a strain sensor element, a carrier and a railway line structure that is to be monitored. At least one part of the carrier is maintained in an elastically deformed state by the structure when the carrier is secured to the structure. The carrier is formed from a first carrier piece and a second carrier piece, which lie opposite one another at a distance from one another. The strain sensor element has one first fixing point fixed to the first carrier piece, and one second fixing point fixed to the second carrier piece, and a middle section mounted between the fixing points which are not fixed to the first or second carrier piece. The strain gauge arrangement is simple to handle and a drop can be reliably detected and a strain state of the strain sensor element can be predetermined more easily.

A particularly flexible method for automatically calibrating a wheel sensor includes using the wheel sensor to determine that a calibration must be carried out. The wheel sensor determines a point in time suitable for carrying out the calibration and the calibration itself is carried out by the wheel sensor at the determined point in time. A wheel sensor for carrying out the method is also provided.

The invention relates to a method for controlling the circulation of vehicles in a network controlled by a control system managing the circulation of communicating vehicles according to a first mode, the first mode managing the movement of the communicating vehicle toward the end terminal of a first section in which a non-communicating vehicle has been detected by implementing a discrimination step eliminating any protection zone located the moving vehicle, when a distance between the communicating vehicle and said end terminal is smaller than a threshold, the method comprising switching into a second mode, when the communicating vehicle enters the first section, the second mode inhibiting the implementation of the discrimination step at least in the first section.

A method for operating an axle counter system for monitoring the occupation status of a track section being limited by counting positions which have at least one detection point and at least one counting position a set of redundant detection points, includes the steps of: (a) incrementing or decrementing axle counter values in dependence of the moving direction of a passing axle; (b) transmitting the axle counter value to an axle counter evaluator; (c) determining the number of remaining axles within the track section; and (d) outputting a track occupation status. Prior to step (c) for each counting position exactly one detection point is selected for further processing independent of the selection at any other counting position. In step (c) the counter values of the selected detection points are used for determining the number of remaining axles and the counter values of the non-selected redundant detection points are ignored.