May 1957: Swiss solution automates rail inspection

Network Rail has an array of tools to ensure anomalies do not become catastrophes on 20,000 miles of track.

Among them is the New Measurement Train (NMT), a converted Intercity 125 that monitors and records track conditions at speeds up to 125mph using its 14 onboard sensors – including linear variable differential transformers and lasers, gyroscopes and accelerometers – and seven Plain Line Pattern Recognition (PLPR) cameras that capture 70,000 images a second, which amount to 10TB of data every 440 miles.

Abnormal PLPR data is sent for analysis by railway engineers in Derby who can then alert regional managers to any confirmed issues picked up by the NMT.

Described by Network Rail as the ‘most technically advanced train of its type in the world’ the NMT, dubbed the Flying Banana due its distinctive yellow livery, was long preceded by an altogether smaller and slower fault finder in 1957.

Said to be the first of its kind on the UK rail network, Switzerland-based Matisa Equipment’s self-propelled trolley was put to work by the Eastern Region of British Railways to detect and record all physical faults and irregularities in the track to ‘within three or four sleepers’. Once it had done that, maintenance teams could then attend to places requiring attention without having to search for defects, as was necessary before.