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RailScan: Museum Track and Wire Scanner

from Project Blog on Christopher Mitchell, Ph.D. [alt+shift+b] in technology

I volunteer at a train, trolley, and subway museum, including working on restoration of full-sized rail vehicles and maintaining railway infrastructure. As a non-authoritative, hobby project combining my love of trains, electronics, mapping, and data, I am building a LiDAR scanner to create a 3D map of the museum, automatically identify tracks and overhead wire, and compute wire height and track gauge.
25th Jun 2026

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More from Project Blog on Christopher Mitchell, Ph.D.

RailScan: First Point Clouds from Railroad Museum Scanner

I volunteer at a train, trolley, and subway museum. As a non-authoritative, hobby project combining my love of trains, electronics, mapping, and data, I am building a LiDAR scanner to map and analyze the museum. After designing the initial hardware and software for a GNSS-enabled LiDAR scanner, I built and tested it at the museum.

16th Jul 2026 • 1 votes
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With the center console of my train simulator built, I rapidly modeled and fabricated prototypes of the four other panels.

30th Dec 2025 • 1 votes
Train Simulator Controller: TPWS Control Panel

TPWS is a key safety system in UK trains, so my Class 80x cab needed a precisely replicated TPWS control panel.

16th Nov 2025 • 1 votes

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