Condition Monitoring of Railway Switches and Crossing by using Data from Track Recording Cars

摘要

Switches and crossings arc vital components within the railway system and contribute to many of the maintenance activities needed to keep the track section available for traffic. Banverket administers about 12 000 switches. Switches and Crossings (S&Cs) contribute to about 13 % of the maintenance budget for Banverket. The age of the S&Cs in main track is on average more than 20 years and therefore in the reinvestment plan, it is necessary to calculate for more than 200 new S&Cs per year. Today, it is not possible to make a decision based on track recording data. The track recording car is measuring the level, alignment, cant, curvature and gauge. For level and alignment, the signal is recorded in three different wavelengths. Banverket has started to use this information in digital form and today it is possible to make more detailed study and investigation. In this study, all analysis has been made In Excel, This work has been a first step to integrate condition monitoring of S&Cs into the data management system lor track recording data in Sweden. The program was introduced during 2009 for identifying S&Cs. The track recording car should be able to provide the alignment signal through the S&C for its health condition, so that appropriate repair/replacement decision can be made.