GB1324073A - Apparatus for measuring railway track parameters - Google Patents

Abstract

1324073 Indicating track connection FRANZ PLASSER BAHNBAUMASCHINEN INDUSTRIE GmbH 14 Sept 1970 [16 Sept 1969] 45592/69 Heading B7N [Also in Divisions G1 and G4] In a device for measuring the difference in height of rails, of a railway, a level sensing device is attached to a probe, mounted on a rail vehicle; the probe may in fact be the vehicle wheels. This produces a signal representing tilt, which signal is stored and compared with a second similar signal produced at a later time. The level sensing device may be a gyroscope 12, Fig. 2a, whose output shaft drives an encoder 13, so that the shaft position gives a measure of tilt. Alternatively the gyroscopes may give an analogue output which is fed to an analogue to digital converter. Another embodiment uses a pendulum which is corrected for the effects of centrifugal force, (Fig. 2c), and fixed to shaft 32 of encoder 30 which is attached to a housing on the vehicle. To correct the effect due to centrifugal force the pendulum carries an accelerometer whose output is fed via amplifier 33 to servo motor 34 which applies a correcting torque to shaft 32. In another embodiment the tilt of the vehicles axles is sensed by an electro-level 24, Fig. 2b. The output of the electro-level 24 together with the output of an accelerometer 28 (to compensate for centrifugal force on the bubble) is fed to unit 27 which feeds an output to analogue to digital converter 29. The digital output of the encoder or analogue to digital converter, which may be either gray code or binary code, representing the axle twist on the probe or vehicle wheels, is fed to sample and hold device 14 which is periodically enabled by a system 15 generating a pulse every time the vehicle travels a unit distance. The output of 14 passes the unit 15 which produces an output representative of the difference in rail heights. This output passes via amplifier 17 to a tape, punch or magnetic recorder 18, or directly to a computer. The output of unit 15 is also fed to a shift register 19. The shift register 19 has outputs at its X, Y, and Z stages leading to summing circuit 20, 21 and 22. These summing circuits also receive the current output from unit 16. Thus the outputs of circuits 20, 21 and 22 represent the relative axle twist for vehicles with wheel bases corresponding to X-1, Y-1 and Y-1 units.