Abstract: The present invention provides a method for determining an element characteristic of at least one railroad element, comprising the steps of: providing a motion sensor (2) on the at least one railroad element (6); collecting motion data provided by the motion sensor (2), wherein the motion data is representing a motion characteristic of the railroad element (6) different from the element characteristic; determining the element characteristic on the basis of the motion data.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for determining an element characteristic of at least one railroad element, comprising the steps of: providing a motion sensor (2) on the at least one railroad element (6); collecting motion data provided by the motion sensor (2), wherein the motion data is representing a motion characteristic of the railroad element (6) different from the element characteristic; determining the element characteristic on the basis of the motion data.

Abstract: The invention discloses a system and method for extracting and processing rail data. Disclosed are a first sensor measuring first sensor data, a local processing component preprocessing the first sensor data, a central server analyzing preprocessed data, a memory component storing preprocessed and/or analyzed data, and an interface communicating with the central server.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system for monitoring at least one characteristic of a railroad (10), comprising a central computing unit (22) which is adapted to retrieve and process data from multiple data sources (19, 20, 24, 26) and to provide output data representing the at least one characteristic of the railroad (10), and at least two data sources (19, 20, 24, 26) which are adapted to deliver data to the central computing unit over respective data links, wherein at least one of the two data sources (19) comprises at least one sensor unit (16a-16c) located in the vicinity of a section of the railroad (10) to be monitored. According to the invention, the at least two data sources (19, 20, 24, 26) are provided such that said data delivered by them refers to different physical properties of the railroad (10) and/or environmental properties.