A better way to increase the performance of railway turnouts
Maintaining a railway #turnout – both correctively and preventatively – can be a costly business.
Bearing significant weight and high dynamic forces, turnouts can incur damage more rapidly than other railway equipment – a risk that increases the safety margin, translating to more maintenance demands, renewals, downtime, and cost.
Reducing the risk?
Thankfully, advanced technologies are helping to drive down the risk associated with turnout wear-and-tear.
Collecting data from embedded system solutions, the technology can help operators spot asset deterioration, without the need for routine inspection.
In turn, it can prevent sudden turnout failures and predict future maintenance demand.
Given the accuracy of these technologies, many can also reduce the need for precautionary replacements, prolonging the overall lifespan of the track infrastructure.
“They can extend maintenance cycles which means less people on track, and a safer workplace. It also means more track availability – which optimises the COP and maintenance costs,” said voestalpine Director, Ivan Vidovic.
However, with so many of these technologies on offer – each differing in their functionality – which solutions should operators invest in?
zentrak intelligent turnout and object controller point
One standout tool is voestalpine’s modular zentrak intelligent turnout and object controller point- a multi-purpose technology that monitors all aspects of a turnout.
Mr Vidovic – who is part of the development team- says its inbuilt monitoring system tracks the health status of turnouts, detects and prevents faults, and maintains asset performance.
“Because our monitoring is built into the turnout, you don’t have to do anything – it’s all integrated. This ensures the availability, efficiency and safety of the rail infrastructure,” Mr Vidovich said.
“A common scenario is for a supplier to sell and forget. For us [at voestalpine Railway Systems], ensuring the reliability of the entire turnout system is of utmost importance.”
Following recent developments, it now also enables on-site replacements and inspections, improving the overall safety of the turnout system.
Proven ability on Mixed Traffic turnouts
So far, voestalpine has installed several prototypes of its technology demonstrating its performance under challenging conditions.
In 2023 and 2024, it installed mixed traffic turnout demonstrators in Spain and Austria.
[This technology] has several integrated sensors, which collect data on the ballast and switch rail degradation, along with multi-sensors, which monitor vibrations in the switch and crossing areas. These provide essential insights for asset managers,” said Mr Vidovic. [In this prototype], additional measurements were performed – [for example] laser scans, to assess the profile of the demonstrator turnouts. These geometry scans will validate the developed degradation models.
After installation, the monitoring system recorded each train passage and uploaded this data to a cloud system, where it was evaluated by advanced algorithms. This data was then integrated into an intelligent asset management and monitoring platform, known as zentrak.
Proven ability on high speed turnouts
Another prototype was installed in Santa Cruz de la Zarza, Toledo, on the Valencia-Madrid high-speed line.
voestalpine Railway Systems and ADIF equipped the network with a high-speed turnout with 14 setting levels – known as 60E1-17000/7000-1:50 – and an advanced monitoring system.
“We installed a comprehensive set of sensors to monitor various use cases and damage patterns, including swing nose-, switch device-, detector rod-, track degradation and crack detection,” Mr Vidovic said.
Subsequently, voestalpine performed a complex data analysis, fusing together output from multiple sources.
“We looked at rolling stock data, wayside monitoring data, operational and traffic data, and inspection and maintenance data.”
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Performance in the most demanding area – heavy haul traffic
A third installation took place in the US, in close cooperation with a notable class 1 operator.
“We equipped several turnouts to monitor [its] performance in the most demanding of environments,” Mr Vidovich said.
“In this project, we focused on the most critical areas—the beginning of the turnout and crossing area – where we experienced high dynamic forces and rapid degradation.
Our team continuously analyse the available data sets and discus the results and value with our customers. The open feedback and good cooperation gives valuable insight on what really matters for an operator, which information is useful and how it’s used in a day-to-day operation. Based on this we have been able to develop the right solutions for our customers helping them reaching the business goals.
Early insights already showed the efficacy of maintenance activities, highlighting where improvements were necessary to improve the track quality and protect the asset to prolong service life.
The team have also been able to identify the root cause of track degradation and rapid wear of critical components.
“This gives us confidence, that we are on the right track and our solutions are valuable for the user,” Mr Vidovich said.
Starting with this defined use case, we are [now] able to scale […] The modular approach enables us to add additional use cases depending on the demand and requirements of our customers. Having proven the value and performance of the system solution we can focus on the next critical areas and improve the whole solution itself.
Around the corner
Having trialled these prototypes in an operational environment, voestalpine’s next plan is to implement the zentrak infrastructure monitoring and asset management/maintenance software.
This will give us a centralized database that combines all relevant data sources and provides a comprehensive view of the assets. We have been supporting heavy freight networks with their superior ton loads, all over the world with our turnout system solutions. The next stage is to introduce our embedded monitoring system solutions to bring the systems itself to a new performance level.
More broadly, the company has ambitions to increase its range of holistic, smart asset management solutions and build on more than thirty years of discipline in this space.
“In the early days, we started with switch condition monitoring – mainly monitoring the current, pressure and forces during the switch movement. But in the last few years, we have taken a more holistic approach, also assessing the condition of the ballast and the crossings.”
Further insight
Sharing more of voestalpine’s plans, Mr Vidovic will present at the upcoming Rail Turnouts Conference, hosted by Informa, and sponsored by voestalpine.
This year’s event? will take place on 25 March 2025 at the Crown Perth | Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar.? Informa Australia's flagship Heavy Haul Rail Conference will take place at the same location one day later on 26-27 March.
voestalpine Railway Systems, a subsidiary company of voestalpine AG, is the global leader for railway infrastructure system solutions, offering outstanding products, logistics and services for rails, turnouts, signaling and monitoring applications.
As the global track technology company and full-range supplier, voestalpine offers customers throughout the world fully integrated railway solutions for all types of rail traffic. Creating maximum customer benefit is the driving force behind all its activities.
About Ivan Vidovic
Ivan Vidovic studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Graz, where he also conducted his PhD and was awarded summa cum laude in 2020. Later that year, he joined voestalpine Railway Systems GmbH, where he was responsible for the business unit-wide development and implementation of applications and data management strategies.
In 2021, he became product manager for zentrak asset and maintenance management and monitoring systems for trackside and fixed assets. And in April 2024, he was appointed Managing Director – CTO/COO of voestalpine Signaling UK Ltd., where he took on responsibility for technical strategy and development.
Additionally, Ivan is a Member of the Management Board in voestalpine Signaling Austria GmbH, responsible for technical and operational strategy of the Competence Unit Digital Track Solutions.