A track checker is a small railway carriage used in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
to audit the
gauge
Gauge ( or ) may refer to:
Measurement
* Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments
* Gauge (firearms)
* Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire
** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...
and integrity of
railway tracks
A railway track (British English and International Union of Railways, UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a Rail transport, railway or railroad consisting of ...
. The first track checkers were simply people that walked the tracks, making sure that the tracks were not damaged and that the switches were working. These people were also called ''track walkers''. Track walkers are famously still employed by the
MTA maintaining the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
subway lines.
A modern track checker, however, is a small carriage on wheels, about the same size as a
Smart Car
Smart (stylized as smart) is a German automotive marque. Smart Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture established by Mercedes-Benz AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2019 and aimed at producing Smart-badged cars in China to be marketed glob ...
, and can be automated or driven by one engineer, who is also known as a "Track checker." This carriage, reaching speeds of , drives along the tracks of a railway.
Maintenance of way equipment
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