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The Federal Railroad Administration sponsored Kansas State University (K-State) in research to improve the design and performance of crossties. K-State used a Creaform HandySCAN 700 3D hand-held scanner to scan the surface of crossties removed from service to a spatial resolution of about 1 mm,...
To address the need to minimize differential movement at railway transitions for joint high-speed passenger and freight routes in the U.S., this research study identified and studied three problematic bridge approaches near Chester, PA, along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor line and another two on...
Researchers developed a second-generation RAdar Ballast Inspection Tool (RABIT) using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for use by track inspectors. This system is much lighter (26 lbs/11.8 kg) than its predecessor (63 lb/29 kg) and is truly portable. It has a single bi-static antenna pair that...
In the final phase of this research project, a team from Sharma & Associates, Inc. conducted moving train tests on a 228-car, Distributed Power (DP) configured train consist traveling from Minot, ND, to Vancouver, WA, using a Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) train and crew. This...
In Phase III of this research, FRA sponsored Sharma & Associates, Inc. (SA), with significant assistance from Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway, to conduct a series of tests to evaluate air brake system performance on a stationary train consisting of 200 cars in BNSF’s railroad...
In Phase II of this research project, FRA sponsored Wabtec to perform train air brake tests on long trains at their facility in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, between January 2021 and March 2021. The air brake rack simulated trains with up to 200 control valves using a conventional (i.e., head-end...
This report presents the means to identify and assess impacts and mitigation methods for aerodynamic effects of high-speed trains on high-speed rail corridors for designers, operators, and other affected parties. It provides descriptions of basic concepts, criteria, standards, and examples...
From 2017–2019, the Federal Railroad Administration sponsored VORtech and its project partners to develop advanced physics-based modeling of wheel-rail friction. Sub-models were established for the elastic and plastic shearing of third body layers, heating of the contacting surfaces, and effects...
This document provides supplementary information to accompany the previously published Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) report titled Reducing Hazards Associated with Visual and Automation-Aided Track Inspections, Report No. DOT/FRA/ORD-21/18. The main report documents a study in which a...
The University of Florida and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in partnership with the Austrian firm voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak, developed a performance-based manufacturing control process for ensuring the freeze-thaw durability of concrete railroad ties. Air entrainment...