By Rob Caldwell • October, 2005 Wheel Shelling has presented serious problems on Canadian railroads in recent years, particularly in winter months. Tread shelling on wheels on Quebec Cartier Mining (QCM) railway’s heavy-haul fleet, for example, reached condemnable limits within one year of use, during the early 1990s. In some cases, …
by Bob Tuzik • April 10, 2005 Rail Grinding has been used to solve a host of problems on transit systems. It recently was used in Boston to remove a new wrinkle. A specialized grinding program was initiated in 2002 on the heels of a series of light-rail derailments on the …
by Bob Tuzik, December 1, 2004 Investigations have shown that wheel-flange/gauge-face angle and the coefficient of friction (COF) play significant roles in contributing to or preventing flange-climb derailments. Investigations have also shown that Light Rail Vehicles with Independently Rotating Wheels (IRWs) have a greater propensity for flange-climb derailment than vehicles with conventional …
by Eric E. Magel • September 20, 2004 Wheel wear is an inevitable byproduct of wheel/rail interaction. Excessive wear, however, indicates an imbalance in some aspect of the wheel/rail interface. Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains, running on track with much greater curvature than other high-speed systems, were quickly found to exhibit very …
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 …