SPL Powerlines Transformsg Railway Surveying with Leica Pegasus TRK70

Rail Surveying just got a very special speed and accuracy boost with the CUB1 road-rail mapping vehicle from SPL POWERLINES UK&I

The CUB1 is the vision of Ash Johnson, Head of Surveying, whom Peter Haddock met on the Leica Geosystems stand to walk around this innovative solution. It’s based around a Permaquip specially adapted Kubota RTV RRV, which is capable of carrying the highly accurate Pegasus TRK700 Mobile Mapping System and the IDS GeoRadar SRS ground penetrating radar array.

Ash: "I’ve spent 25 years as a surveyor standing trackside behind a tripod. Now with CUB 1 we’re driving past people doing that with everything controlled by our surveyors in the rear covered seating area.”

“CUB1 is designed to capture as much data in a short possession as possible. We investigated multiple mobile mapping systems and settled on the Leica Pegasus system as being the most effective for our needs, with the cameras, accurate scanners and SLAM system maintaining positioning in GPS denied environments.” 

“The addition of the SRS GeoRadar modules means the team can collect both above ground asset data and subsurface ballast information during the same run, reducing the need for repeat site visits and maximising every possession.” “A lot of our work is done under live overhead line conditions, so we wanted to be able to make adjustments to the mounting of the Pegasus TRK700 without having to climb onto the vehicle.

“The ability for it to pivot to the side and down to the ground also means it’s much safer for us to rig in a live rail environment.”