Railway track displacement measurement system and method for proactive maintenance

1. A measurement system to determine physical displacement of a railway track during use of the railway track, the system comprising:

a transducer configured to be mounted at a connection point between a track and a sleeper of a track structure, the transducer measuring a physical parameter of the track when a wheel of a train traverses over the track; and

a device operatively coupled to the transducer, the device determining vertical track displacement from the physical parameter measured by the transducer, the device generating a warning signal indicative of a degradation or failure of the track structure when the measured track displacement exceeds a predetermined threshold,

wherein the device coupled to the transducer is a hand-held device capable of monitoring the vertical displacement for a maintenance determination.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the physical parameter of the track is measured with respect to a rest state of the track for indicating a measure of an operational condition of the track, wherein the measure of the operational condition of the track is an indication of a poor ballast or formation leading to pumping of the track.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transducer is integrated with a point monitoring sensor for an automatic monitoring of the vertical displacement of the track.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a datalogger coupled to the transducer, wherein the transducer measures a movement of itself to record the displacement data as the vertical displacement of the track in the datalogger.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the device further comprising:

a display to indicate the displacement data as a magnitude value for the vertical displacement of the track for a user to show whether the vertical displacement of the track is beyond an acceptable level.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the device to determine whether the magnitude value exceeds a threshold and generate an alarm if the magnitude value exceeds the threshold.

7. A measurement system to determine physical displacement of a railway track during use of the railway track, the system comprising:

a transducer configured to be mounted at a connection point between a track and a sleeper of a track structure, the transducer measuring a physical parameter of the track when a wheel of a train traverses over the track; and

a device operatively coupled to the transducer, the device determining vertical track displacement from the physical parameter measured by the transducer, the device generating a warning signal indicative of a degradation or failure of the track structure when the measured track displacement exceeds a predetermined threshold,

wherein the track is connected to the sleeper with a metal plate and the transducer includes a magnet to attach to the metal plate.

8. A measurement system to determine physical displacement of a railway track during use of the railway track, the system comprising:

a transducer configured to be mounted at a connection point between a track and a sleeper of a track structure, the transducer measuring a physical parameter of the track when a wheel of a train traverses over the track; and

a device operatively coupled to the transducer, the device determining vertical track displacement from the physical parameter measured by the transducer, the device generating a warning signal indicative of a degradation or failure of the track structure when the measured track displacement exceeds a predetermined threshold,

wherein the transducer measures an acceleration and a time at the same time to provide a value for the vertical displacement of the track.

9. A method of monitoring a railway track during use of the railway track, the method comprising:

measuring a physical parameter of a track coupled to a track structure using a sensor when a wheel of a train passes over the track;

calculating vertical track displacement based on the measured physical parameter;

determining a degradation condition of the track or track structure based on the vertical track displacement; and

generating a warning signal based on the degradation condition of the track or track structure.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

mounting a transducer at a connection point between the track and a sleeper of the track structure to determine the vertical track displacement.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

correcting the track structure based on displacement data before a current state of the track results in a failure.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining vertical track displacement of a track further comprising:

optically measuring a vertical displacement of the track with a laser by detecting how much the track moves down when the train passes over the track.

13. The method of claim 10 , determining vertical track displacement of a track further comprising:

measuring a movement of a transducer by the transducer to record displacement data as the vertical track displacement in a datalogger.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

displaying displacement data as a magnitude value for the vertical track displacement for a user to show whether the vertical track displacement is beyond an acceptable level.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

determining whether the magnitude value exceeds a threshold; and

generating an alarm if the magnitude value exceeds the threshold.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining vertical track displacement of a track further comprising:

measuring an acceleration and a time at the same time to provide a value for the vertical track displacement.

17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

integrating a transducer with a point monitoring sensor for an automatic monitoring of the vertical track displacement.