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The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (MxV Rail), in collaboration with a railroad technical advisory group (TAG), to research and conduct proof-of-concept field testing of a Virtual Block Track Circuit (VBTC) concept. The VBTC concept uses...
The goal of the Automated Train Operations (ATO) Safety and Sensor Development Project was to define system requirements for a locomotive-borne sensor platform (SP) to support the ATO concept. Transportation Technology Center, Inc. conducted market research to gain an understanding of available...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) funded Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) to examine the performance benefits of four potential modifications to the current methodology used for passenger braking enforcement algorithms (EA) in the Interoperable Electronic Train Management...
The objective of this research project was to develop a predictive risk model for the release of hazardous material transported in unit trains using data science techniques for available rail accident and traffic data. This work builds upon previous research (Bing, et al., 2015) which examined...
Fractures in the stub sills of tank cars pose a significant problem for the rail industry due to the potential for damage to the tank structure and possible release of the contents. Previous FRA research revealed that high magnitude coupling forces that occur in yard operations have the...
The Federal Railroad Administration sponsored a team from Transportation Technology Center, Inc. to conduct two investigations to improve the safety of roller bearing operations on railcars. The team conducted the research between September 2018 and April 2022 in collaboration with Burlington...
The primary objective of this research was to validate the finite element (FE) stress levels obtained during previous research through physical testing of a selected knuckle design. The validated FE model was used to investigate potential improvements in knuckle fatigue life, such as higher...
The Federal Railroad Administration contracted Transportation Technology Center, Inc. to define Interface Requirement Specification (IRS) documents for an Interoperable Train Control Automated Train Operation Support System Back Office (ITC-ATOSS BO). This project forms part of a larger...
Vertical split rim (VSR) is a serious railway wheel failure mode that requires further research. Visual clues are not usually present until the crack propagates through the rim. To better understand the root causes of VSRs, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Association of...
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (MxV Rail) conducted a project for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to complete the development of Operational Performance and Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Analysis (OPRAM) tool. The team successfully developed the OPRAM...