Theoretical and practical investigations of railway switch drives

Abstract

The paper shows an exemplary process of the investigation of a switch drive for the compliance with the Polish requirements. The study is aimed to propose a procedure and clarify the requirements for switch drives. The switch drive is a system which regulates and governs directly the safety of the transportation of people and goods. The lack of explicitly expressed requirements is the source of the problems and the difficulties in the process of the approval to use and the use itself of switch drives. During the research process should also be forecast the application of telematics solutions. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.