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Alternatives to conventional diesel electric propulsion are currently of interest to rail operators. In the U.S., smaller railroads have implemented natural gas and other railroads are exploring hydrogen technology as a cleaner alternative to diesel. Diesel, battery, hydrogen fuel cell, or track...
The High Accuracy Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (HA-NDGPS) is a prototype position location service that uses carrier phase and code measurement data to obtain precise geolocation information. This project was established to assess the feasibility of improving upon the...
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) constructed a prototype High Accuracy Global Positioning System (HA-GPS) base station at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) under contract by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to broadcast carrier code and phase measurement data at 1...
Railroads are increasingly using automated track inspection technologies to augment the work of track inspectors in support of safety and productivity. The current study documents a human factors hazard analysis intended for both railroads and others interested in understanding hazards...
From 1996 to 2016, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) analyzed historical probability of detection (POD) data for the fusion welded tank car butt welds (BW) and fillet welds (FW) inspection using Code of Federal Regulation (CFR)-approved nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods. The...
This appendices summarizes the number of observations, misses, hits, and false calls for each interval for fillet welds (FW) for all operators and for each nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method applied in Appendix A. Appendix B summarizes the median frequency of hits and misses for the...
Rail spikes connect railroad rails to the supporting crossties and secure tie plates and crossties together. Recent field inspections and observations have revealed broken spike failures (cut spikes and drive/screw spikes) when used with elastic fastener tie plates in mountainous, high-degree...
This report describes the work performed during Phase IV compliance testing of light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures used as locomotive headlights and auxiliary lights. The purpose was to study the performance of the lamps under severe cold weather conditions. Researchers sought to determine...
This report describes the compliance testing of light-emitting diode fixtures used as locomotive headlights and auxiliary lights. The purpose of Phase III testing was to study the ability of observers to identify inconspicuous visual targets along the track, the pattern formed by the locomotive...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored a project to demonstrate the effectiveness of an Acoustical Warning Device (AWD) to be used for generating a secondary Emergency Warning Signal (EWS). The focus of this Phase 2 work is to warn trespassers of an approaching train through the...