Enhanced method and apparatus for deducing a correct rail weight for use in rail wear analysis of worn railroad rails

Abstract

A system for identifying rail weights applicable to worn railroad rails measured along a railroad track system includes at least one track measurement device for recording at least a portion of a profile shape of the worn rails, and, a data processor running a software implement for accepting recorded data as input data from the at least one track measurement device and for processing the input data against known unworn railroad rail data to facilitate selection and application of the appropriate rail weights equated thereto to the worn railroad rails.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention is in the field of railroad maintenance and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for deducing correct rail weights for use in rail wear analysis of worn railroad rails. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Maintenance of railroad tracks is extremely important for safe operation of trains on railroads. Widening of gage (the separation between the left and right rails), excessive wear of rails and fatigue-induced cracks in the rails can cause hamiful consequences such as derailments. In order to avoid such incidents, it is necessary for railroad owners and authorities to inspect the track conditions at regular intervals. To acquire information about the condition of railway tracks, important track parameters are often measured by means of specialized track geometry measurement vehicles or ‘Geocars’. The track parameters thus measured include track geometry (gage, alignment, curvature, cross-level, surface quality, etc.) as we...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0042] A system is provided for identifying rail weights applicable to worn railroad rails measured along a railroad track system. The system includes at least one track measurement device for recording at least a portion of a profile shape of the worn rails, and a data processor running a sof

Problems solved by technology

The inventor has studied the above-mentioned documents and has found that they do not solve the problems of the prior art.

Nothing in the art listed above solves or even adresses the problem of manual rail weight identification and system entry being required in order to successfully and accurately obtain all of the parameters for accurate rail wear measurement.

While the reference does mention in an un-enabhng fashion the possible existence of systems using pattern recognition methods to identify an original shape of a rail, it provides no solution to the problem of manual entry of rail weights and associated un-worn profiles of those rails for use in comparison.

However, the set of reference profiles used here consists of worn profiles and not of unworn standard profiles.

According to the inventors, it is reported that the aforementioned commercial systems experience difficulty in discerning profiles, which either are very close to each other in shape, or which are highly worn, or which are completely new to the system, or which were recorded in adverse weather conditions.

A drawback to this approach is that if business rules and / or measurement of key geometric parameters without the use of sophisticated statistical techniques aimed at generalization were used in a method employed for identification of rail weights, it is very likely that many such rules would be required to discern a huge number of rail weights from each other.

Any alterations to the standard set of rail weights such as addition of a new rail weight are likely to demand a significant change in the set of governing business rules.

It is a tedious task to accommodate such variation in a set of rules.

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