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Research Results

Data Analysis of Grade Crossing Incidents

Traffic movement (TM) is a measure of train and vehicle traffic used to calculate incident rates. This analysis used TM to examine grade crossing incidents from 1989-2008. 

Evaluation of Education and Outreach Programs

Researchers identified strategies to improve rail safety based on successful education and outreach programs in other transportation modes, countries, and industries.

Due to our recent website upgrade some of the links in legacy documents might point to the decommissioned site location...

Performance of Tank Car Pressure Relief Devices Under Fire Conditions

Between August and October 2018, an initial series of tests with water as lading were conducted at Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in Northbrook, IL, to confirm test and instrumentation setup and baseline PRD performance. In August 2019, a subsequent series of tests using ethanol, a flammable...

Experimental Results of RAWCAD Static Test

The Federal Railroad Administration supported the performance of semi static tests on two cracked axles as part of the Resonant Acoustic Wayside Automated Cracked Axle Detection (RAWCAD) project. The performance of detection algorithms for distinguishing frequency shift in cracked axles was...

Developing Low Service Temperature Steels for Railroads Truck Castings

The research performed for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) previously identified six grades of steel currently used in low temperature applications that could potentially be used as truck castings. These materials are specified under the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM)...