General
Improving Transportation Through Railroad Research: 1988-1991
The Office of Research and Development (R&D) of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducts research, development, test, and evaluation projects to directly support the FRA's safety responsibility and to enhance the railroad system as a significant national transportation resource. This...Hazardous Materials Car Placement in A Train Consist- Volume II (Appendices)
In response to major derailments involving hazardous materials cars, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) initiated the review of the consequences of hazardous materials car placement in a train consist. The review and analysis consisted of six task items: 1) review of accident trends and...
Guideway Structural Design and Power/Propulsion/Braking in Relation to Guideways
This report has analyzed electromagnetic and mechanical designs for a magnetically levitated train system with nominal specifications: maximum speed: 500 km/hr (300 mph); passenger capacity/car: 50-200; vehicle weight: 42 metric tonnes (92,600); and guideway width: 3.65 m (12 ft.) The analysis...
Extended NUCARS Safety Assessment
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Association of American Railroads (AAR) sponsored research to evaluate the ability of the NUCARS vehicle dynamics simulation program to extrapolate results from Chapter XI tests to permit definition of the safe operating limits of car performance up to...Evaluation of Two Prototype Devices for Non-Destructively Measuring Stresses in Railroad Wheels
Two devices designed to non-destructively determine the residual stress state of railroad wheels were evaluated. The first device was a magnetoacoustic design developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center in conjunction with the Association of American...