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Technical Reports

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State Grade Crossing Programs: A Case Study

This report reviews the California Railroad-Highway Grade Crossing Program, analyzing the factors influencing the reduction in grade crossing accidents. The report concludes that the greater than average success in grade crossing safety in California has resulted from the long standing financial...

Side Impact Test and Analyses of a DOT-111 Tank Car

Transportation Technology Center, Inc. conducted a side impact test on a DOT-111 tank car to evaluate the performance of the tank car under dynamic impact conditions and to provide data for the verification and refinement of a computational model. The tank car was filled with water to...

MARTA "C" Car: Thermal Capacity Test

A Special Engineering Test was conducted on Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Car 502 to determine the operating temperature at various undercar locations during worst-case simulated revenue service while operating at AW2 weight (100,000 lbs). This simulated revenue service was...

Effects of Rail Profile Variation

Railroads in various countries including the United States have found that benefits may be obtained by grinding rails to an 'asymmetric' profile rather than to the original 'new' rail profile. To investigate these findings further, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Association of...

Performance of Degraded Roller Bearings

Concerns over railroad bearing failure prompted a test to be conducted to measure the rate at which degraded bearings overheat under service conditions. A test consist which included a locomotive, a data collection car and four test cars containing 24 subject bearings was utilized. The bearings...