Patent ID: 6981419

Claim:
A portable direct sensor attachment system for allowing a user to evaluate and detect flaws in railroad tracks comprising, in combination: a vehicle equipped with monitoring equipment having an undercarriage that adapts the vehicle to ride along a railroad track rail; an apparatus mount coupled to a first rail wheel on the undercarriage, the apparatus mount having a mounting pin aperture there through; a downwardly displaced arm having an upper end and a lower end, the upper end having a centrally located mounting pin aperture there through with the lower end having a wheel axle hole there through; a mounting pin fabricated of rigid material and pivotably coupling the downwardly displaced arm and the apparatus mount; a pair of railroad vehicle wheels each having an inner side and an outer side and a thickness there between, the inner side of the first wheel having a flange of a first diameter to secure the vehicle on a railroad track rail and the outer side having a round track contact surface of a second diameter, the second wheel having a second diameter, with each of the wheels having a plurality of radially located studs; a first wheel axle fabricated of rigid material to couple the first railroad wheel to the downwardly displaced arm; a sensor mounting bracket having an inner side and an outer side and a thickness there between, and an inward end and an outward end with an extent there between, the bracket having a first wheel axle aperture on the inward end to allow coupling the bracket to the vehicle wheel, the bracket having a second wheel axle aperture on the outward end to allow coupling of the bracket to the second rail wheel, the bracket having a plurality of bolt holes centrally located on the extent of the bracket; a first wheel bracket axle fabricated of rigid material to couple the first railroad wheel to the mounting sensor bracket; a second wheel bracket axle fabricated of rigid material to couple the second railroad wheel to the mounting sensor bracket; a sensor being one of the sensors from the class that includes piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electromagnetic-acoustic, air-coupled and laser-ultrasonic phased array sensors, the sensor being coupled to the sensor mounting bracket and being located between the first and second wheel, the sensor being maintained at a fixed height above the top of a railroad track rail with mechanisms for adjusting the fixed height for electromagnetic-acoustic, air coupled and laser transduction sensors; and an electronic coupling means for coupling the sensor to monitoring equipment.