Tilt meter trial for landslips

NETWORK Rail is trialling a monitoring system which provides early warning of earth movements at sites in Scotland. Surface mounted tilt meters have been located at 26 sites, including on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line, East Kilbride branch, between Aberdeen & Inverness and on the line to Kyle of Lochalsh. A further seven sites will get the monitoring equipment in the coming months and by April 2024, 100 sites will be monitored. The system will be able to flag potential issues to engineers, enabling trains to be slowed down and stopped before they reach the problem area, thereby improving safety. Two banks of wireless tilt sensors, typically spaced 2.5m apart with a central pole, logger and cameras will monitor data from the sensors, and send an alert via the mobile network to warn train controllers to the danger. The solar powered system has battery back-up.