There have been several posts in a few threads about a geometry car making the rounds. There was a photo of it at both new Bedford and then at Hyannis. What type of inspection equipment does the car have and what is the purpose of the inspection? How does it differ from the analysis done by the sperry rail service, which I believe does analysis of the rail itself? Thanks.
Highrail,
Track Geometry cars measure and inspect for alignment, crosslevel, curvature, rail gauge, rail profile, and warp. In order to do this they use a few different types of measuring devices to include laser measurement systems, accelerometers, video systems, gyroscopes and in older cars proximity sensors. I'm almost willing to bet that I have left out or forgotten a few pieces of equipment, but someone can add to it if I have forgotten. The biggest difference between a geometry car and a sperry car is that the sperry car is set up to look for defects (both internal and external) with the rail, where as the geo car inspects the entire roadbed. This is the reason you see referances to having both a sperry car and a geometry car over the same track sometimes within days or weeks of eachother.
