USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

eLibrary

eLibrary
Subscribe to RSS

Dead Line Testing of Pantographs on the RTT Catenary System

The tests described in this report were carried out by the Transportation Test Center to verify the newly constructed overhead catenary system on the Railroad Test Track (RTT) and the pantographs to be used on it. The data produced included height and stagger measurements in support of the...

Angle of Attack and Wheel-Rail Wear

Angle of attack is one of the most important parameters influencing wheel and rail wear. Some experiments conducted on the IIT-GMEMD 1/4.5 test facility to study wear of wheels and rails are reported. The angle of attack range covered is from 6=0.25° to 6=1.00°. The drastic reduction in wheel...

An Evaluation of the Costs and Benefits of Railroad Electrification

This report, responds to issues raised in Section 901(7) of the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act (4R Act) and discusses how electrification might contribute to or detract from meeting the objectives of this Act. This report is primarily limited to an evaluation of the potential...

A Low Cost Catenary Design-Analysis: Final Report, Tasks 1 & 2

A new system of railroad electrification has been studied that requires only a single contact conductor as opposed to the conventional catenary system. Preliminary designs for the various components have been developed and are described. These include the traveller (that rides on the contact...

Wind Tunnel Tests of Trailer and Container Models to Determine the Independent Influence of Height and Gap Spacings and Trailer Undercarriage Shielding on Aerodynamic Forces Occurring During Railroad Transport

A series of wind tunnel tests have been run on scale model trains of 40 ft. containers and trailers. The models were 1/43 scale. A train of five models was used with forces and moments measured on the center model. A variety of spaces were used between the models. The height of the container models...