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The purpose of this report is to provide an introduction to the technology known as the Advanced Train Control System (ATCS), illustrate its functions and potential benefits in freight railroad applications, and provide a guide to quantifying the benefits and costs for railroads interested in...
High Speed Guided Ground Transportation (HSGGT) vehicle/guideway systems-both high speed rail (HSR) and magnetically levitated (Maglev)- are being considered for deployment in the United States. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has the mission of ensuring the safety of such systems. To...
The Federal Railroad Administration's Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report is intended as a resource for the FRA's safety partners. It is also intended as a general reference source for individuals and organizations with an interest in rail safety issues. Statistical data, tables, and chars are...
The Federal Railroad Administration's Railroad Safety Statistics - Annual Report is intended as a resource for the FRA's safety partners and other entities who play a primary role in promoting railroad safety. It is also intended as a general reference source for individuals and organizations with...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has sponsored a program to continue the validation of new techniques for testing and analysis that could be applied to the evaluation of the safety and track worthiness aspects of new freight car and suspension designs. The total program involves laboratory...
This paper discusses the safety challenges faced by railroads in the United States. It discusses and evaluates public policy dealing with trespassing, grade crossing collisions, occupational injuries, and operational accidents. The primary conclusion is that the government oversight body, the...
All rear-end train marker lights until recently were incandescent bulbs of almost identical design. With the advent of cabooseless trains and battery-powered end- of-train devices, new technologies using low-power LED and xenon flash tube lights were developed. Because of uncertainties in off-axis...
In response to a request by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), personnel of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and of the FRA visited the site of this accident. The purpose of this visit was twofold. First, to make observations that could be useful in studies of the properties and...
This report describes analysis tools to predict shift under high-speed vehicle-track interaction. The analysis approach is based on two fundamental models developed (as part of this research); the first model computes the track lateral residual deflections under vehicle passage, whereas the second...
A Monte Carlo simulation of certain aspects of rail inspection is presented. The simulation is used to compare alternative practices in railroad rail inspection programs. The results how that equipment performance and/or inspection frequency control service defect rate and suggest that allowance of...