LIGHTREC: SMALL & LIGHTWEIGHT TRACK GEOMETRY RECORDING EQUIPMENT

A truly portable equipment for recording track geometry named LIGHTREC has been successfully developed to enable real-time measurements on all maintained track. Critical achievements of the development are low cost, light weight, compactness, high precision, heavy duty, and easy operation. These characteristics were achieved by modifying and adopting a unique principle called the two-point angle method for LIGHTREC. Since the new principle needs only one optical encoder to measure irregularities, it has been possible to develop a product model that is lightweight (15kg) and folding (from 2.5m to 1.8m) with a significant reduction in cost (about 1/5). Seven measuring items including track gauge, cross level, alignment (right and left), longitudinal level (right and left), and twist can be measured and calculated to a high precision. As test results on LIGHTREC have proved satisfactory, there are strong expectations that the equipment will find a variety of applications in track quality management. For the covering abstract see ITRD E123761.