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Technical Reports

Fiber Optic Train Tracking - Phase 1

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) contracted Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) to test the train tracking capabilities of fiber optic acoustic detection (FOAD). Testing was performed to simulate train movements typically seen in normal operations on North American Freight...

Side Impact Test and Analyses of a DOT-117 Tank Car

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducted a side impact test on a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)-117J100W (DOT-117) tank car at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) to evaluate the performance of the tank car under dynamic impact conditions and to provide data for the...

Side Impact Test and Analyses of a DOT-105 Tank Car

Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) conducted a side impact test on a Department of Transportation (DOT)-105A500W (referred to DOT-105) tank car to evaluate the performance of it under dynamic impact conditions and to provide data for the verification and refinement of a computational...

Vibration Transmissibility Characteristics of Occupied Suspension Seats

A study was conducted to evaluate the transmissibility characteristics of occupied suspension seats in multi-axis vibration environments using locomotive seats. Exposures included a flat acceleration spectrum and two signals extracted from locomotive floor data. The multiple input/single output...

Improving Secondary Impact Protection for Locomotive Engineers

A modern freight locomotive designed to the specifications of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations § 229.207 and the Association of American Railroads’ S-580 can preserve the space occupied by an engineer during a train collision, particularly in the cab of a leading locomotive, up to moderate...

Quasi-Static Research Testing of Workstation Tables

Sharma & Associates, Inc. (SA) performed quasi-static destructive loading tests on two different designs of passenger workstation tables in accordance with the requirements of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) safety standard APTA PR-CS-S-018-013, Revision 1. SA conducted...