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General

Short Line Safety Institute: 2023 Systematic Review

SLSI conducts an annual analysis to assess the status of safety culture in the industry. This report summarizes findings from a systematic review of the 20 SLSI Safety Culture Assessment Reports created in 2023 and discusses industry trends in the strengths and opportunities for improvement...

A 3D Scanning Method to Measure Concrete Crosstie Geometry

The Federal Railroad Administration sponsored Kansas State University (K-State) in research to improve the design and performance of crossties. K-State used a Creaform HandySCAN 700 3D hand-held scanner to scan the surface of crossties removed from service to a spatial resolution of about 1 mm,...

Ballast Fouling Measurement Tool – Phase II

Researchers developed a second-generation RAdar Ballast Inspection Tool (RABIT) using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for use by track inspectors. This system is much lighter (26 lbs/11.8 kg) than its predecessor (63 lb/29 kg) and is truly portable. It has a single bi-static antenna pair that...

Very Long Trains – Phase IV - Moving Train Test

In the final phase of this research project, a team from Sharma & Associates, Inc. conducted moving train tests on a 228-car, Distributed Power (DP) configured train consist traveling from Minot, ND, to Vancouver, WA, using a Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) train and crew. This...