Inspection of railway turnouts using camera

• The railway turnout is an essential component in a railway system, used to divert traffic along different tracks. A turnout includes a number of different parts, including the switch blade, frog, point machine, switch roller, soleplate, check rail, wing rail, drive rods, control rods and other bars. These parts must be kept in good condition, meeting functional and safety requirements. Failing to comply will result in a reduction of the network’s capacity with economic consequences. Not honouring the safety limits could result in severe accidents, including derailment, causing human casualties. By performing the right type of inspection and/or maintenance at the right time, these unwanted events can be reduced. To determine if and when a maintenance action should be performed, the condition of the turnout must be established, usually by manual inspections or with measurement vehicles. The drawback is the discrete nature of these inspection events. Failure modes with development times shorter than the inspection interval could result in a malfunction of the unit. An on-line measurement system would be able to deal with these failure events and initiate correct maintenance actions at an earlier stage. With an on-line system, remotely located turnouts could be inspected without on-site personnel. Capacity consuming failures of turnouts with a strategic location or with bottleneck characteristics could also be corrected before they affect traffic. This paper describes a feasibility study of a camera based inspection system for turnouts and discusses the effect the method could have on system reliability and capacity.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Annan samhällsbyggnadsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Other Civil Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Operation and Maintenance Engineering

Drift och underhållsteknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)