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Technical Reports

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Ride Quality Evaluation of High Speed Trains on the Northeast Corridor

A portable system to allow collection and analysis of carbody vibration data according to ISO standard 2631 was designed and built. This system allowed the FRA to record and compare the ride quality performance of foreign and domestic high speed trains operating in revenue service on the Northeast...

California State Rail Plan

Government Code Section 14036 requires the California Department of Transportation (the Department) to complete a 10-year State Rail Plan with both passenger and freight rail elements. The law also provides that the State Rail Plan be updated every two years. The passenger rail element of the...

High Speed Rail (HSR) in the United States

There are two approaches to High Speed Rail: improving existing tracks and signaling to allow trains to travel somewhat faster, typically to as much as 110 miles per hour, generally on track shared with freight trains; and building new tracks dedicated exclusively to high speed passenger rail...

1985 Track Survey: National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak)

From September through December 1984, the FRA conducted an intensive survey of all mainline track utilized by Amtrak (see fig. 1). Three automated track geometry railcars -- the latest in railroad state-of-the-art inspection technology -- measured track gage, cross level, wrap, profile, alignment...

Wood Tie Track Resistance Characterization and Correlations Study

The work presented here is part of a major program to evaluate lateral buckling of continuous welded rail (CUR) tracks. The program to develop the technical information to support safety guidelines and specifications for track buckling prevention is being directed by the Volpe National...

An Investigation of Passing Stop Signals at a Passenger Railroad

This report documents the findings and recommendations from an investigation into stop signal violations at an American passenger railroad. The investigation was requested by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the passenger railroad, and sponsored by FRA’s Office of Research &...

An Industry Perspective on Maglev

Most of the recent discussion and proposed legislation concerning Maglev assumes that U.S. industry has a strong interest in Maglev and will be willling to take a proactive, costsharing role in the development of Maglev systems. As part of the preliminary feasibility studies on Maglev, the Federal...

Evaluation of a Top-of-Rail Lubrication System

This report documents the testing of a top of the rail lubricant applied in computer-controlled quantities. This system, the SENTRAEN 2000™, was developed by Tranergy. The testing was carried out over CSXT operated track between Corbin, KY and Cartersville, GA on various train runs from February...