• How Rail Grinding and Milling Affect Noise on Transit Systems

    by Jeff Tuzik A well optimized wheel/rail interface is a quiet wheel/rail interface. In the rail transit environment, there are many technologies and strategies to reduce wheel/rail-generated noise, and they tend to focus on reducing rail roughness. Standard rail grinding, acoustic rail grinding, rail milling, and specialized acoustic grinding machines …

  • Norfolk Southern Embarks On a New Approach to Rail Defect Repair

    by Jeff Tuzik Internal rail flaws and defects are an unfortunate but unavoidable part of railroading. All railroads have them. All railroads have to repair them. Defect remediation, which involves cutting out the affected rail and replacing it with plug rail, is a necessary, but costly and time-consuming process; it’s …

  • Total Friction Management on CPKC’s Thompson Subdivision and Beyond

    by Jeff Tuzik In the railroad industry, friction management takes many forms. Managing friction through the application of lubrication and friction modifier products is a key component of maintaining an optimized wheel/rail interface. North American railroads typically use some combination of gage-face lubrication and top-of-rail (TOR) friction modifiers on various …

  • Autonomous Inspection on CPKC and the Future of Track Inspection

    by Jeff Tuzik Track geometry inspection has always been an intrinsic part of railroading. That hasn’t changed and never will. But the way inspections are performed and the data they yield is changing rapidly. Automation is one of the biggest factors in the change, but the sophistication of inspection technologies …

  • Digging Into Cause Codes for Track-Related Derailments

    by Jeff Tuzik Derailments have many causes. Some are fairly simple and straightforward, others involve a complex combination of factors and circumstances. Determining the root causes is what keeps derailment investigators busy, and what helps railroads avoid such derailments in the future. Over the years, and over the course of …