Infrastructure Measuring Vehicle

[John Ashworth]

Two interesting pictures, apparently taken three years apart, of an unusual Infrastructure Measuring Vehicle can be found at RailPictures.Net, here and here. If the dates are correct, then the 2009 photo is incorrectly labelled "Spoornet" - presumably it should be TFR.

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

That second photo has a train surfer.

[Luca Lategan]

haha, luckily there is no catenary!

[Tom Macrery]

The obvious question - What is an "Infrastructure Measuring Vehicle"? ie What does it do? What 'infrastructure' does it 'measure'? Thanks, Tom

[John Ashworth]

Tom, as far as I know it is, literally, to measure the infrastructure. Presumably it's particularly concerned with loading gauge, ie measuring the clearances all around the train, especially station platforms, tunnels, bridges, etc, in order to ensure that the route actually is clear for a train to pass safely. There are different static and dynamic envelopes, as a moving train will rock slightly from side to side, which is one of the reasons an out-of-gauge load can sometimes be allowed to pass at low speed. This vehicle appears to also have some interface with the overhead wires, perhaps measuring their height or alignment.

in the UK, the New Measurement Train (a bright yellow HST set) also has the function of recording everything using an array of cameras pointing in different directions. Believe it or not, when British Rail was privatised, there was no up-to-date asset register. The government sold off the nation's railway infrastructure without even knowing exactly what it was selling. So this train now runs all over the network recording what is there, and also recording what condition it is in.

[Steve Appleton]

Good article on UK's HST-based "New Measurement Train" is loacted here on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Ra ... ment_Train

[John Ashworth]

Quite a nice little summary on Network Rail's own website:

Gauge Capability

The physical dimensions of a railway vehicle and its load are governed by a series of height and width profiles, known as (loading) gauge capability. This ensures that a railway vehicle will not come into contact with a lineside or over-line structure, such as station platforms, canopies, overhead power supplies (catenary) overbridges or tunnels.

Loading gauge profiles vary by route, reflecting the constraints on rail vehicle size caused by lineside and over-line structures. Historically, Britain’s railways were constructed by separate companies, often to differing loading gauges. Network Rail has a set of separate loading gauge standards for passenger and freight vehicles. A railway wagon built to one of the smaller loading gauges (e.g. W6) is capable of operating on virtually any route on the national rail network. The larger loading gauges tend to have greater headroom, to enable intermodal flat wagons to carry tall containers and swap bodies on certain routes.

In exceptional cases, Network Rail may permit larger 'out of gauge' loads to be moved by rail. This will normally require a survey of the route in question to check available clearances (undertaken at cost to the interested party), and the train may also normally be subject to speed restrictions. There may also be restrictions on trains using adjacent lines while the out of gauge load is moving, which will restrict the availability of train paths.

There are pictures of the Network Rail "Structure Gauging Train", which is different from the New Measurement Train, here and here. The black vehicle in the middle is where all the lasers and other fancy kit are located.

[Steve Appleton]

The speed at which these measuring traisn operate at is astounding. This one for Italy:

Archimede gets the measure of Italian track: a new measuring train used by the Italian railway infrastructure company, RFI, travels 80,000 km a year and checks the 10,000 km Italian network at double the frequency of previous generations of vehicles.

ARCHIMEDE is a 19.5 million pounds sterling locomotive-hauled, five-car measuring train that takes the scientific measurement of the condition of infrastructure components on to a new plane. RFI has already developed plans for an even more advanced measuring train for Italy's developing 300 km/h high-speed network.

Equipment for the complete diagnosis of the infrastructure is concentrated within a single train that can work at 200 km/h, compared with 160 km/h for previous vehicles, and can monitor up to 119 different parameters.

International Railway Journal | November 1, 2004| Knutton, Mike | COPYRIGHT 2004 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

[Luca Lategan]

Doesn't this veichle also carry an x-ray type thing so that it can look for bad places on the permanent way? I know Metrorail has a machine like this that can travel and measure at up to 100km/h.

[Nathan Berelowitz]

On the line to Messina, there is a tunnel near Waterpoort. For many years a strange apparatus was parked near the mouth of the tunne.l It was a means of measuring the tunnel clearance. It was half circular with a row of spikes on it and had small flanged wheels. It was, as I mentioned, used to check the clearances when retamping the tracke etc. I wonder if it is still there today?