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 …