Intellectual technologies in railway transport solve many urgent problems. The most important of these is ensuring safety of cargo and passenger traffic. Now its solution is entirely entrusted to specialized manual and self-propelled diagnostic tools. However, it is generally agreed that the most future-proof concept is installation of monitoring systems directly on regularly travelling trains. This approach will allow continuous monitoring of the railway tracks, and make forecasting the development of defective rails possible. This paper is devoted to the concept of embedded track monitoring systems based on inertial, optical, magnetic, satellite and other technologies. The main emphasis is placed on the analysis of signals of micromechanical inertial modules installed on the wheels of the car wheels, which allow monitoring the condition of the rolling surfaces of the rails. Based on the results of the analysis, a conclusion is made on possible configurations of the proposed embedded diagnostic systems.