System for monitoring movement of railroad track

Abstract

A system for monitoring movement of railroad track includes a plurality of data collection units secured to respective railroad ties in a curved section of railroad track. Each data collection unit includes a GPS receiver. The data collection units collect location data from the GPS receivers and transmit the location data to a base unit. The base unit collects the location data from the data collection units and periodically uploads the location data to a server. Software on the server reviews the data for any changes in location of the data collection units and reports the results to a user or users.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is as follows: 
     
         1 . A system for monitoring movement of a curved section of railroad track comprising:
 a) a plurality of data collection units, each of said data collection units fixedly connected to a tie in the curved section of railroad track and including a GPS receiver and a data transmitter, said GPS receiver obtaining location data identifying a location of the respective data collection unit and said data transmitter configured to transmit said location data;   b) a base unit including a collection receiver configured to receive said location data from the data transmitter of each of said data collection units, said location data collected and retained by said base unit for upload; and   c) a server in communication with said base unit and configured to receive and analyze said location data to identify changes in location of said data collection units and the attached ties.   
     
     
         2 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein each said data collection unit includes a battery powering the respective GPS receiver and data transmitter and a solar panel connected to said battery and operable to charge said battery. 
     
     
         3 . The system as in  claim 2  and further including one or more secondary solar panels remotely mounted from said data collection units and connected to said batteries of said data collection units by respective cables. 
     
     
         4 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein said base unit further includes a base unit GPS receiver operable to collect static location data for comparison to the location data collected from said GPS receivers in said data collection units and transmit said static location data to said server. 
     
     
         5 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein said base unit is further operable to collect environmental data and transmit said environmental data to said server. 
     
     
         6 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein said base unit  5  further includes storage media for storing said location data for batch upload to said server. 
     
     
         7 . A method of monitoring movement of a curved section of railroad track comprising the steps of:
 a) collecting location data at a plurality of data collection units, each data collection unit secured to a respective railroad tie in a curved section of railroad track and including a GPS receiver operable to acquire the relative location data and a transmitter;   b) communicating the location data from each of the data collection units to a fixed base unit via the respective transmitter;   c) collecting the location data from each of the data collection units at the fixed base unit;   d) uploading the collected location data from the base unit to a server; and   e) using the server to analyze the collected location data to detect and track movement of the curved section of railroad track.   
     
     
         8 . The method as in  claim 7  and further including the steps of:
 a) collecting static location data from a static GPS receiver included in the base unit; and 
 b) uploading the static location data to the server for comparison to the collected location data. 
 
     
     
         9 . The method as in  claim 7  and further including the steps of:
 a) collecting environmental data from sensors associated with the base unit; and 
 b) uploading the environmental data from the base unit to the server.