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Railroads

Demonstration of Mechanics-Based Track Geometry Deterioration Models

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) contracted Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) to expand on existing mechanics-based ballast condition forecasting models. This report demonstrates how one of the mechanics-based models performs against field data and makes recommendations for...

Longitudinal Resistance Modeling for Frozen Ballast

On behalf of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) developed a “proof-of-concept” finite element (FE) longitudinal resistance model to simulate a rail break based on historical data. Longitudinal track resistance (fo) is an important parameter...

Spike Loading Environment in Various Wood Tie Fastening Systems

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) contracted with Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) to investigate the spike loading environment in various wood-tie fastening systems. The goal was to understand how dynamic loads are transferred to the spikes in wood-tie fastening systems and...

Onboard Broken Rail Detection Research and Development

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored a project, performed by Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), to research the feasibility of an Onboard Broken Rail Detection (OBRD) concept. A parallel long term track impedance characterization effort was undertaken with the...