Railway Monitoring Solutions - Sixense North America

Railway monitoring addresses the constraints and operational demands specific to the rail sector, where measurements must be collected on a live network without interrupting traffic. Sixense applies field-proven techniques that let infrastructure owners track the condition and behavior of their assets continuously and identify critical movement before it affects the track.

These methods can be applied to monitor:

The impact of construction or maintenance activities near or beneath the tracks
Infrastructure aging and structural fatigue
Geotechnical risks such as landslides, unstable embankments or excavations, rock mass instability, and hidden cavities or dissolution zones

Effective railway monitoring keeps rail operations uninterrupted and protects the safety of passengers, crews, and maintenance personnel throughout construction and maintenance work.

Our Railway Monitoring Solutions

Automated Motorized Total Station (AMTS): Cyclops

Automated topographic measurement

An automated motorized total station measures settlement, uplift, and lateral displacements by repeatedly sighting monitoring prisms against fixed reference prisms. Cyclops returns absolute X, Y, and Z coordinates as real-time data, which makes it the most widely used railway monitoring solution on active rail corridors.

Several Cyclops units operate as a single network when one instrument cannot hold line of sight to every monitoring point, extending coverage across large sites. An autonomous power option allows deployment where there is no access to the electrical grid.

Discover our automated motorized total station solution

Shape Array Inclinometer: 4DShape

Continuous segmented automated inclinometer

A shape array inclinometer measures settlement along a continuous profile using 50-centimeter segments that each record their own inclination. 4DShape applies this chaining principle to horizontal alignments such as embankments and railway tracks.

Continuous profile measurement supports early detection of ground movement, along the full length of the alignment rather than at isolated points, which makes it reliable for long-term railway monitoring of embankments and track alignments. Notably, use of 4DShape does not require optical line of sight.

Discover our shape array inclinometer solution

Railway Track Monitoring: Rail Serenity

Redundant track geometry measurement

A railway track monitoring system pairs an automated total station with alternative measurement systems along the track, so each measurement is confirmed by multiple types of sensors. Rail Serenity uses this redundancy to report track geometry reliably, 24 hours a day.

Discover our railway track monitoring solution

Tiltmeters and Electrolevels

Monitoring track movement

Tiltmeters measurechanges in inclination. Mounted on beams of known length, it converts those changes into relative displacement between the beam ends, and a continuous longitudinal array builds a settlement profile along the track from a single surveyed reference point.

Mounted directly on rails or sleepers, tiltmeters monitor critical operational parameters such as cant and twist. They keep measuring in harsh weather and even while trains are passing, which makes them a dependable part of railway monitoring programs where line of sight is challenging for the Cyclops system

Rail Deflection Gauges: Dansometers

Measuring rail dance

Rail dance is the dynamic vertical movement of a rail under each passing axle. A growing deflection identifies deterioration in the supporting components beneath the rail, whether sleepers, ballast, or subgrade, before the damage becomes visible at the surface, so potential issues are identified while repairs are still local.

Rail stiffness can mask voids and localized settlement between train passages, so a dansometer measures under load, when the defect actually shows. Rail deflection gauges use high-frequency displacement sensors, or accelerometers with double integration and dedicated algorithms where finer resolution is needed.

This application is particularly useful when the area of expected movement is well-defined, such as in a jack-and-bore under the tracks. The dansometers may be installed directly above the centerline of the bore to measure rail deflection under each passing train at the most critical location.

Why Choose Sixense for Railway Monitoring?

20 years of rail experience and in-house development

Sixense has monitored rail infrastructure for more than 20 years and develops its own instruments and software. The post processing chain, from sensor to monitoring platform, is maintained by the same teams that install it on your network.

A local team backed by a nationwide network

Installation, commissioning, and maintenance are handled by field crews close to your site, supported by a nationwide network. Scheduled site visits every 1 to 3 months keep instruments aligned between reporting cycles, and crews can reach the site when a reading needs verification.

A turnkey service, from installation to processed data

Sixense handles installation, data acquisition, processing, and reporting. Infrastructure owners work with displacement trends, time-series graphs, alerts by email and SMS when a threshold is exceeded, and automated reports, instead of raw sensor output waiting to be interpreted.

Quality control on every measurement

Readings are checked against reference prisms and alert thresholds throughout the monitoring period, so real movement is separated from measurement noise before it reaches a report. That control is what makes the information reliable enough for informed planning of track maintenance activities such as resurfacing.

Our Approach to Railway Monitoring

1. Site study and system design

Every rail corridor has its own constraints: line of sight, physical security, and access windows between trains. Sixense surveys the site, defines where each instrument goes, and sizes the monitoring system around the number of monitoring points, sightlines, establishment of a good control network, the reading frequency, and the alert thresholds agreed with the infrastructure owner and its safety management requirements.

2. Installation and integration

Instruments are installed during access windows so train traffic keeps running. Sensors are wired to a datalogger, which handles data communication to the monitoring platform. Integration brings total stations, inclinometers, and tiltmeters into a single system, so readings from different equipment share the same time base.

3. Monitoring, reporting, and maintenance

Measurements are processed and published on the platform in real time, with time-series graphs, live plan views, and alerts by email and SMS when a threshold is exceeded. Field crews return every 1 to 3 months to check the instruments, and a project journal keeps a record of every intervention.

Applications

Railway Monitoring - Earth Structures

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Railway Monitoring - Engineering Structures

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Frequently Asked Questions About Railway Monitoring

What is railway monitoring?

Railway monitoring is the continuous measurement of track geometry and ground behavior using instruments installed along the line. Sensors record settlement, inclination, and deflection, and send readings to a monitoring platform that can detect movement beyond the alert thresholds. It is a form of structural health monitoring applied to rail assets.

How does railway monitoring work on a line that stays in service?

Instruments are installed during access windows between trains and then measure automatically, without crews on the track. Readings travel from the datalogger to the platform, so rail traffic continues while the data is collected. This is what separates monitoring technology from manual survey campaigns that need possession of the line.

Which sensors are used for railway monitoring?

The main equipment includes automated motorized total stations for absolute X, Y, and Z coordinates, shape array inclinometers for settlement profiles along embankments, tiltmeters for cant and twist on the rails, and rail deflection gauges for movement under passing axles. Many projects combine several sensor types, but the most typical is automated motorized total stations.

How often are railway monitoring measurements taken?

Reading frequency is set during design and depends on how critical the structure is and on the level of risk. Automated instruments can measure several times per hour during construction under the tracks, then move to a slower cycle once movement stabilizes. Alerts are sent by email and push alerts as soon as a threshold is exceeded.

What is the difference between railway monitoring and a track inspection?

An inspection is a snapshot taken at one moment by a crew on site. Railway monitoring runs continuously and records what happens between inspections, including movement under load that a static check cannot see if dansometers are used. The 2 approaches are complementary: monitoring flags potential issues as they develop, inspection confirms the cause.

When should railway monitoring be installed on a project?

Instruments should be installed before the work starts, so the readings include a baseline of the track in its current condition. Without that reference, later movement cannot be attributed to the works. Baseline measurement also gives the project teams the information needed to define realistic alert thresholds.