by Jeff Tuzik Among the most significant forces that freight railroads contend with in daily operations are buff and draft (or compressive and tensile) forces between cars within train consists. These forces are mediated by various damping technologies, braking and acceleration practices, and by train make-up. When these forces aren’t …
New all-season TOR and GF FM products show performance and efficiency benefits over traditional seasonal variants.
by Jeff Tuzik Seattle’s Link Light Rail, operated by Sound Transit, is a fairly young system. And by most standards, a small system. But it’s also a sophisticated system, and it’s growing fast. The system currently operates 25 miles of track and is in the midst of expanding to 50 …
By Jeff Tuzik On freight railroads, rail is generally the largest single asset, capital expenditure, and one of the primary costs. From a maintenance perspective, rail is subject to wear and defect development, both of which can be actively managed in a number of ways. From an accounting perspective, rail …
By Jeff Tuzik Railroads around the world have many standards for wheel and rail hardness, with varied theories regarding the interaction of harder and softer steels. And while it is intuitively apparent that harder materials should wear less, last longer and generally provide a net benefit to systemic resilience, the …
By Jeff Tuzik The State of Good Repair is a goal, but it’s also a process. It’s achieved through a series of instruments and instrumental decisions that aim to report on the health of a system from the most granular component level, to the broadest holistic overview. This Part 2 …
Presenters at the 2022 Wheel/Rail Interaction conference looked at heat and track configuration issues as they relate to derailment potential in heavy-grade, high-tonnage territory. They also looked at the role of Operating parameters in derailment potential, and at the findings from 20 years of investigations into derailments. By Bob Tuzik …
Presenting experts at Wheel/Rail Interaction 2022 made it clear that there’s more to inspection than meets the eye. Education and training can help reduce errors and improve inspection efficiency. By Bob Tuzik “Human Factors” are frequently cited as cause codes in railway incidents and derailments. But while track and mechanical …
by Jeff Tuzik Transit systems around the world, despite their differences, all contend with the same issues to some degree. Issues like vehicle- and ground-borne vibrations, excess noise, and timetable delays often rise in priority as they generate increasing numbers of complaints. These issues are often symptoms that can be …
A pair of speakers from different continents discuss the benefits of autonomous track geometry collection and the advantages of monitoring revenue-service vehicles’ response to track conditions in this first installment of topics covered at this year’s annual Wheel/Rail Interaction Conference in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. By Bob Tuzik Brad Kerchof wasted …