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Rail Grinding
How Sound Transit Controls Train-Borne Noise
by Bob Tuzik This article was originally published in Mass Transit (June 2023). Challenges abound in the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of light rail lines in urban areas. Chief among them is controlling track- and vehicle-born noise, an important part of maintaining the support of an agency’s various stakeholders, …
Protected: Implementing Rail Grinding and Wheel/Rail Interface Optimization Programs on Heavy Haul and Transit Systems: Lessons Learned
Rail Grinding and Milling: How They Work, Where They Work
by Jeff Tuzik Rail grinding is a well-established maintenance practice with multiple preventive and corrective applications. Rail milling is a more recent (introduced roughly 25 years ago) addition to the rail maintenance toolkit but although it’s use in North America has been limited thus far, it is widely used in …
Rail Corrugation: A Problem Solved?
by Jeff Tuzik Rail corrugation is a common phenomenon. It’s found on both freight and transit lines around the world. The mechanisms behind corrugation are well understood, and there are many tools and techniques available to mitigate and remedy corrugation and its underlying causes. But this hasn’t always been the …
Mitigating Transverse Defects and Reducing Non-testable Areas: Grinding Strategies at CSX
By Jeff Tuzik Transverse defects are among the most costly and dangerous rail defects that freight railroads contend with. Across all Class 1 railroads, transverse defects are responsible for roughly 31 percent of broken rails system-wide; so mitigating the growth of transverse defects and detecting their presence via internal flaw …
An Introduction to Rail Grinding on the Delhi Metro
by Jeff Tuzik Rail transit properties around the world all contend with the same general issues. The corrugation on track in San Francisco is the same as corrugation on track in New Delhi. There may be a few different details, but the physics is constant. When it comes to addressing …
Mitigating Rolling Contact Fatigue: An Overview for 2023
by Jeff Tuzik Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) affects railroads and transit systems globally. The effects of RCF damage range from poor ride quality and excessive noise, to shelling and spalling so deep and widespread that rail sections must be replaced. Over time, the railroad and transit industries have developed tools …
Squats and Studs: Emergent Damage Mechanisms on Rail Transit Systems
By Jeff Tuzik The unforgiving environment of the wheel/rail interface creates many damage mechanisms. These manifest in defects as varied as corrugations, rolling contact fatigue, and gage-corner cracking, to name only a few. Among the most vexing defects that commuter, transit and high-speed rail lines contend with are squat-type defects …
Modelling Success and Predicting Failure at the Wheel/Rail Interface
WRI 2016, Heavy Haul Part 2 See Part 1 By Jeff Tuzik The worst time to explore the complexities of contact mechanics, lubrication, metallurgies, carbody behavior or other aspects of wheel/rail interaction is at a derailment site. But it’s often the most instructive. As George Fowler, Senior Investigator at …