Ballast is a key component of most railway tracks. The ballast bed must cope with high demands while fulfilling crucial tasks. Wear and contamination cause the condition of the bedding to deteriorate, which is accompanied by a loss of its proper functioning. Consequently, track alignment issues arise, which are typically corrected by tamping the affected areas. This study presents a new approach to assess the condition of the bedding. The tamping unit of a high-performance tamping machine has been equipped with an array of sensors which measure various parameters during every tamping process. A set of recorded data is analysed and compared with the prevailing ballast condition of the tamped sections, which is evaluated using proven methods. The results indicate a strong correlation between the tamping machine measurements and the condition of the bedding, which shows that tamping machines can be used to monitor the track ballast condition.

track ballast; tamping; condition monitoring