Railroad trivia> what is a sperry car?

Question

Railroad trivia> what is a sperry car?

Answer 1

It's an automated way to test/inspect the tracks.  It's a self powered railroad car that uses an electrical current to look for breaks in the steel.

Answer 2

Don't quote me on this, I may be wrong. Sperry made gyroscopes back before they had GPS. I am guessing that a "Sperry" car was used for track maintenance. Using the gyroscope, the car could tell if the grade was bad. Sorry, best I could do off the top of my head,

Answer 3

I will take a wild guess: it is the car that carried the work crews.

Answer 4

It is a piece of equipment that checks the condition of the rail head, web and base.  Also called a "track geometry car".

Sperry does manufacture other on track equipment, primarily rail grinders.