Track Recording Vehicle

The program package "track recording vehicles" consists of two parts:

• Generation, management and maintenance of a track recoding vehicle’s on-board database to ensure accurate localisation of data measured (where am I right now?)
• Generation, management and maintenance of a Data Warehouse to store and evaluate the data measured

On-Board Database
This database holds a map of the track-based railway network including related identifiers, such as bridges, tunnels, railway crossings or stations, as well as GPS-based so-called sync(chronisation) points every five to eight kilometres to facilitate regular updating of localisation data (railway line, track, kilometre) during a measurement run.

Data Warehouse
The track recording vehicles collect track geometry and wear data, which are stored, together with the localisation data (see on-board database), in the form of binary data files.

Process

They will be transmitted from the vehicle to the ÖBB’s Track Recording Division at the end of each measurement run, where they are normalised and integrated into the Data Warehouse.

During data transfer to the Data Warehouse system numerous checks will be carried out as defined by the maintenance schedule. Continuous collection and systematised storage of measurement data in a Data Warehouse form the basis for studying the rate of track degradation in general and in special sections (such as those with many curves), and for devising appropriate maintenance strategies.

If any limit value is exceeded, the deviation will be categorised and recorded in single fault reports made available to the relevant experts online in the web. Each single fault thus identified can be visualised in the web, i.e. the appropriate recording chart is displayed, accompanied by a digital photo of fault location.

Benefit

• Central collection of measurement data and their history
• Rate of degradation studies
• Easier and targeted budgeting of maintenance policies
• Improved efficiency of maintenance policies
• Cost saving

Summary

The EM250 and EM80 track recording vehicles serve to collect, process and evaluate track geometry data in a database. This, in turn, forms an essential basis for ensuring an increasingly sophisticated use of these vehicles.