THE most technically advanced train of its type in the world, Network Rail’s ‘NMT’ flew through Pembrokeshire this week at 125mph.
The ‘New Measurement Train’, affectionately known as the ‘flying banana’, is a unique, high-tech machine equipped with the newest measurement systems, track scanners, and a high-resolution camera to help measure the condition of the tracks.
Covering 20,000 miles of track the monitoring fleet slot between timetabled trains so there are no delays or disruption as a result of the work.
A spokesman for Network Rail said: “The train ran through Pembrokeshire on April 14 before moving up to Derby in the evening. The train passes through different areas every few months or so as it travels up and down the UK monitoring the tracks.”
New Measurement Train in numbers:
Measures track conditions at 125mph
Surveys 4,800 miles of track every two weeks
Carries out shifts of up to 1,000 miles at a time
Covers 115,000 miles a year.
Seven cameras on board recording images at 2048 pixels wide and 30 miles long
Captures around 10TB of image data every 440 miles