Detecting Rail Surface Contaminants Using a Combined Short-Time Fourier Transform and Convolutional Neural Network Approach

Condition monitoring of railway track surfaces is crucial for ensuring the safety, operational efficiency, and effective maintenance of railway systems. This work presents a data-driven modelling and an experimental methodology for identifying and classifying contaminants on railway tracks using vibration analysis and artificial intelligence techniques. In this study, the railway dynamics were physically simulated using a 1:20 scaled test rig, where the rails were treated with various contaminants (oil, water, and sand), and the resulting vehicle vibrations were recorded by on-board accelerometers and gyroscopes. To construct the predictive model, a hybrid architecture was designed integrating Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) for time-frequency feature extraction and a multi-channel Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for pattern recognition. Initial results indicate that accelerometer data, particularly from longitudinal and lateral vibrations, are more effective than gyroscope data for classifying certain contaminants. To enhance classification robustness, this work introduces a multi-channel CNN that simultaneously processes the most informative signals, leading to a significant improvement in detection accuracy across all tested contaminants. This study validates the effectiveness of the proposed methodology as a robust and reliable solution for contaminant detection, while also confirming the utility of the scaled testbed as a valuable platform for future research in railway dynamics.