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This report characterizes the amplitude and wavelength content of the current track geometry environment of the United States railroad system and examines the combination of geometric parameters for different operational conditions. The analyzed track geometry dataset consists of over 49,000...
Between September 2019 and June 2022, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored a research team from Sharma & Associates to model and test the torsional strength of a passenger car coupling system to understand the performance of coupling systems in train accidents and to enhance...
Detecting poor track conditions before they become safety-critical is essential for improving the safety and efficiency of railroads. To this end, autonomous track inspection technologies are beneficial, since established manual inspection methods are time-consuming and require significant track...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored MxV Rail to conduct a collision test using both a moving and a stationary three-car consist. The moving consist included an EMD F40 passenger locomotive equipped with crash energy management (CEM) components backed by two M1-series passenger...
From October 2018 to March 2019, the Federal Railroad Administration sponsored Transportation Technology Center, Inc. to conduct a literature review on the methods of measurement and characterization of track geometry. The goal of the review was to summarize the current state of track geometry...
A team from MIT’s Human Systems Laboratory designed the locomotive HUD as a wide field of view augmented reality head-up display (AR-HUD). The technical feasibility of an AR-HUD was assessed through literature review and hardware tests. To study human factors issues, an AR-HUD prototype was...
Crash energy management (CEM) components which can be integrated into the end structure of a locomotive were developed: a push-back coupler and a deformable anti-climber. These components are designed to inhibit override and improve crashworthiness for equipped locomotives in a wide range of...