EVALUATION OF TRACK CONDITION BY MONITORING OF MASSES.

With rapid advancements in the field of electronics, track monitoring has assumed great significance in track maintenance planning on all advanced railway systems. The conventional track-recording cars record the track geometry in the 2 m to 40 m wave band and are good for improving the track in respect of the dynamics of suspended masses. The smaller wavelengths of less than 2 m are also extremely important and affect the dynamics of unsuspended masses. The maintainability and dynamic performance of track are affected only by those small wavelengths. Conventional track-recording methods cannot detect such track irregularities. The author has used acceleration monitoring of unsuspended masses of railway vehicles to monitor track in respect of such small wavelengths. The high-speed routes on Indian Railways are monitored using this method, which has been found to be extremely useful.