This study, conducted jointly by ENSCO, Inc. and Harris Corporation, assessed the potential benefits of applying commercially available change detection software to railway machine vision images. Change detection involves registering “Before” and “After” images on a pixel-by-pixel basis to isolate changed areas. Two modes of change detection were assessed: intensity-based detection that identifies change where pixel intensity differs and thematic-based detection that identifies change where pre-determined pixel themes (e.g., concrete, ballast, etc.) occur. The intensity-based mode has shown potential for use on rail-based images; the thematic-based mode has shown potential to help fill a supporting role of filtering non-relevant changes.