USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Technical Reports

Subscribe to RSS

Longitudinal Forces in Railroad Track

This work is devoted to the theory of design computations for track subjected to thermal and creep forces. The theory of longitudinal forces and displacements arising in continuous welded rail (CWR) track due to temperature changes is mathematically developed. A description of results of...

Bridge Tests by Using the Track Loading Vehicle

The Track Loading Vehicle (TLV) was used to conduct a series of bridge tests. The Big Creek Through Truss Bridge on the Norfolk Southern Railroad in Tennessee was used for thee tests. The theoretical and experimental axial forces in bridge members were compared. The TLC generated influence lines,...

Safety Analysis of the ATCS

There are two reasons to model Advanced Train Control System (ATCS) safety. The first is to provide a general sense of how well the ATCS performs, from the viewpoint of safety, with respect to the current signaling and control systems. The second is to examine the relative contribution to the...

Safety Aspects of New Trucks and Lightweight Cars, Car 2 : Interim Report

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has sponsored a program to continue the validation of new techniques for testing and analysis that could be applied to the evaluation of the safety and track worthiness aspects of new freight car and suspension designs. The total program involves laboratory...

Railroad Safety and Public Policy

This paper discusses the safety challenges faced by railroads in the United States. It discusses and evaluates public policy dealing with trespassing, grade crossing collisions, occupational injuries, and operational accidents. The primary conclusion is that the government oversight body, the...

Rear-End Train Marker Light Evaluation

All rear-end train marker lights until recently were incandescent bulbs of almost identical design. With the advent of cabooseless trains and battery-powered end- of-train devices, new technologies using low-power LED and xenon flash tube lights were developed. Because of uncertainties in off-axis...