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Nondestructive Measurement of Longitudinal Rail Stresses (Final Report)

An ultrasonic probe has been designed, evaluated, and shown capable of measuring longitudinal stress changes in railroad rails. The probe utilizes the effect of applied stress on wave velocity (acoustoelastic effect) to determine the stress change. Both laboratory and field evaluation has shown...

Modern Concrete Crosstie Practice in France and Mexico

Considered briefly is the history of concrete crosstie development in France. Failure of some crossties in 1973 led to a determination of the failure modes and a rigorous analysis of the service load limits to be taken into account. New crosstie designs evolved from this investigation. Technical...

Metroliner Truck Test

This report contains the results of a comparison of ride quality data collected on Metroliner Cars 850 and 855. The comparison is made in terms of standard deviations and peak values of the recorded lateral, vertical, and longitudinal acceleration and in terms of the International Standardization...

Metroliner Ride Improvement Program

The objective of this program was to determine methods of improving the ride quality of the Metro liner railcars. Two levels of modifications were considered: first, modifications to the existing hardware and second, replacement of the present trucks. In the conduct of the program road tests,...

Methods for Joining of Rails: Survey Report

The performance of track structures depends greatly on the integrity of the connections between rail sections. Because the majority of service and detected rail failures occur at joints, particularly conventional bolted joints, this survey was conducted to review existing practices, examine...

Measurement of Friction Snubber Forces in Freight Car Trucks

The report describes the design and construction of a set of transducers intended to measure the normal forces (column loads) and friction forces applied by the four friction shoes to the wear plates of a standard, three-piece freight car truck. Two 70-ton trucks, an ASF Ride Control and a Barber S...

LTV/SIG Metroliner Truck Test- Volume II

An additional running test program of the LTV/SIG Metroliner trucks was conducted with the objective of defining suspension system characteristics. The tests were conducted on revenue tracks of the Penn Central Railroad in the Northeast corridor between Washington, D.C. and Hudson, N.J. Testing...

Linear Induction Motor Research Vehicle Wheel/Rail Adhesion Test

A principal factor in the design of effective propulsion and braking systems for new rail transportation equipment is the available adhesion vs speed characteristics of steel-wheel-on-steel-rail vehicles. Objectives of the LIMRV wheel/rail adhesion test were: (1) to obtain, over a wide speed range...