Wireless sensor technologies offer new opportunities in different applications thanks to the great technological progress in the development of smart sensors, powerful processors and wireless communication protocols. In this paper, performance evaluation of two network topologies based on routing strategies for train monitoring has been conducted in a realistic mesh sensing system. Results conducted in NS2 using Mannasim extension show that Multi-tier multi-hop topology outperforms the classic multi-hop topology in terms of end-to-end delay, throughput and residual energy level.