Monitoring car for the Swiss metre gauge

The merger of existing individual services and new products into a uniform service portfolio provides cost savings for customers.

With ARGE FahrwegDiagnose and its partners iNovitas AG, Kistler Instrumente AG and Sersa Maschineller Gleisbau AG, synergies of existing and new services in the fields of measuring technology, geomatics and rail infrastructure construction and maintenance are created. In addition to measurement data acquisition, the focus is on customer-oriented visualisation and evaluation of the data. The monitoring car is a diagnostic vehicle for standardised and loaded measurement in accordance with EN 13848, which is so far unique to the metre gauge. The universal vehicle, which is equipped with various buffer and braking systems, can be used to measure metre-gauge railways at speeds of up to 80km/h. The following parameters can be recorded: track geometry, rail cross section wear, overhead contact line position, RealityCapture image service and clearance gauge measurements with stereo and 360° cameras as well as track stiffness based on subsidence measurements. For the georeferenced visualisation of the data, ARGE FahrwegDiagnose is developing a dashboard with easy and hierarchical access to the relevant key parameters and evaluations. The measurement database IRISSYS is used for detailed data analysis and the generation of measures for maintenance and renewal. IRISSYS can also calculate quality grades (e.g. network status report) and provide forecasts. Great importance is attached to the interfaces between the ARGE FahrwegDiagnose systems and the customers' systems such as GIS, Toporail and Asset Management. Measurements comparable throughout Switzerland with the new metre-gauge monitoring car form the basis for uniform algorithms and maintenance concepts for metre-gauge railways.