Measurement Data for RAILplus

For the first time, the meter-gauge measurement vehicle enables the analysis and thorough examination of high-quality, comparable data from various railways.

RAILplus is the cooperative platform of the Swiss metre-gauge railways, involving 21 railways. The ARGE Track Diagnosis already counts 13 of them among its customers.

The system leadership of RAILplus aims to significantly improve the overall cost-effectiveness of the vehicle/track system to avoid cost increases and achieve cost reductions. This is achieved through projects such as basic scanning, rail head conditioning, wheel/rail interaction, track stiffness, vehicles, and overall cost-effectiveness. Project development is supported by experts from the industry as well as young, highly motivated junior engineers and experienced railway specialists.

In the first sub-project with RSRG participation, the goal is to create a characteristic dataset for Swiss meter-gauge railways. This dataset can be provided in future vehicle procurements to select the appropriate boundary conditions for vehicle simulation and design.
 

The measurement data, which is regularly collected across the entire network by the participating railways using the meter-gauge measurement vehicle, is stored in the IRISSYS analysis platform. For the analysis, it is crucial that the quality and measurement conditions, such as axle load during measurement, are consistent and of high-quality. The project team was supported in selecting 18 track sections from various RAILplus railways. Subsequently, the data was exported and provided to PROSE AG for the generation of the characteristic dataset.

The second sub-project involves delivering rail profile data from various meter-gauge railways. The data, enriched with track geometry and alignment data, is exported from IRISSYS and linked with wheelset measurements in the specialised “Gleiskontakt” software. This allows for investigations of contact geometry.