This work investigates the potential of data analysis of measurement data from a railway vehicle during passenger service, to extract valuable and meaningful information. On-track tests during the commissioning phase yield valuable load data, but it is difficult to predict and quantify the realistic and actual incurring loads during passenger service. A more realistic picture of the operational conditions during passenger service, could not only help during the design process of components, but could also provide useful information on the remaining life span of a component. Continuos estimation of loads using measurements during passenger service may help to gain this realistic picture. For this work, measurement data of a German train fleet of the type Desiro HC during passenger service was provided. The aim is to audit and process this measurement data for the analysis of a yaw damper and to develop a model that estimates the movement of this damper. In the course of an exploratory data analysis, the necessary performance indicators for such a model were defined and the sensor technology used in the train fleet was examined, regarding the usability as model input. As a large set of data alone alone is not sufficient for extracting valuable and meaningful information, the data has to be divided into comparable sections. The data was divided into sequences based on satellite navigation data information, which cover an entire sequence from one station to the next. These sequences were embedded in a database structure based on indexing, giving each sequence an individual index key. This allows for quick data extraction and the flexible database structure was extended with further performance indicators. Furthermore, the influencing factors on a yaw damper stroke are analysed and rated, namely the yaw, plung and roll motion, as well as the longitudinal displacement of the car body relatively to the bogie. Based on the load of the train, the secondary accelerations and the rail curvature, the aforementioned carbody motion and the stroke of the yaw damper is estimated, using a simple mathematical model. The developed model was validated with data from an on-track test. The result was a direct comparison of the measured and estimated damper stroke and an estimation of the precision of the model.