By Gary Wolf • March 10, 2005 With the approach of spring, a trackman’s thoughts turn to the potential for sun kinks. Some call them thermal misalignments, some call them track buckles, some call them sun kinks. But no matter what you call them, their effects can be characterized in …
By Gary Wolf • February 1, 2005 It’s said that “it takes two to tango,” but it takes three critical elements to induce harmonic rock and roll: • An operating speed between approximately 12 and 24 mph. • A vehicle conducive to rocking due to its mass and spring characteristics. • …
By Gary P. Wolf • January 1, 2005 Part 1 of “Effects of Wide Gauge on Derailment Potential” examined how wide gauge occurs, some of the symptoms and reasons why wide gauge is undesirable. Part 2 of this article explores how to correctly measure gauge and properly identify wide gauge …
By Gary P. Wolf • December 1, 2004 “Wide gauge” is one of the most often used FRA derailment codes. In 2003, 254 derailments were reported to have been caused by wide gauge (FRA code T110 or T111). This represents nearly 13% of all derailments reported to the FRA, and roughly …
By Gary Wolf Part 1 of this article examined trailing-point derailments, facing-point derailments and thin flange wheels. Part 2 examines wheel climb and frog-related derailments. Crosslevel variances in turnout geometry represent a common cause of wheel-climb derailments. It’s not unusual to find bolted or insulated joints within 30 to 40 …
By Gary Wolf No other type of derailment causes as much angst among railroaders as the switch point derailment. The switch point derailment can take several forms, but it generally boils down to a disagreement between the Mechanical Department that blames the switch point, and the Engineering Department that blames …
By Mike Gilliam and Russell Rohlfs • July 2010 The Union Pacific Railway has 30,000 mainline miles of track over 23, primarily, western states. It has more than 6,500 miles of curves, which require significant maintenance efforts, such as rail grinding and lubrication. It’s a challenge to manage the rail assets, …
By Rob Caldwell • October 2010 The wheel/rail interface is a complex system – one that benefits greatly from careful pre-engineering. There are significant benefits from properly addressing the wheel/rail interface, and serious consequences from allowing the interface to govern itself. While there are examples of both pre- and post-engineering scenarios, there …