MONITORING OF RAILWAY SITES AFFECTED BY SNOW AVALANCHES

The article discusses various measures of engineering protection of a railway track from avalanches. A description of the measures for engineering protection of railway structures from avalanches proposed by the East Siberian Institute for the Design of Transport Systems of the Irkutsk State University of Railways (VSIPTS IrGUPS) on the Kunerma-Delbichinda section of the East Siberian Railway is given. Due to the high cost of avalanche protection measures and the inability to implement them in the near future, it was decided to consider in the article various preventive measures to protect against avalanches. At the moment, to monitor the accumulation of snow cover and control avalanches on the railways, they use: reed switches, high-definition video surveillance cameras, quadcopters and special radars. These measures of informing about the possible exit of snow masses on the railway track are analyzed and conclusions are drawn about the disadvantages and advantages of these measures. As a result of the analysis of the currently used means of monitoring and informing about a possible or already occurred avalanche descent, several possible options for preventive measures to protect against avalanches are additionally proposed: monitoring the passage of snow masses with the help of laser beams and with the help of GPS / GLONNAS receivers.At the same time, it was proposed to place the sensors in several rows to exclude false alarms. Comparison of all considered options revealed that the most optimal would be the use of GPS / GLONNAS sensors. The design of devices with such sensors is relatively inexpensive, easy to install, and allows monitoring with sufficient accuracy at any point along the path of an avalanche.