Patent ID: 8345948

Claim:
A method of inspecting a turnout of a railroad track, the method comprising the steps of: capturing images of running rail portions and rail components of the turnout; converting each image into a set of coordinates that traces the transverse cross-section of a profile of the image of each respective running rail portion and each respective component; analyzing the profile to determine if the profile is a profile of a running rail portion or a rail component; upon determination that the profile of the image represents a rail component, taking measurements of the profile and applying electronic gauges to the profile to check for safety and/or maintenance issues associated with the rail component, the electronic gauges may be rotated or translated to be applied at appropriate positions and location of the rail component to measure the conditions of the rail component to determine if the rail component is approaching or is failing safety and/or maintenance standards; generating a summary of each cross-section of the profile of the rail component indicating areas in which safety and/or maintenance issues exist.