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Railroad Safety and Public Policy

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...

Rear-End Train Marker Light Evaluation

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...

Observations of the April 8, 1979 Railroad Accident at Crestview, Florida

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...

Analyses of Track Shift Under High-Speed Vehicle-Track Interaction

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...

Simulation Model for Risk/Benefit Evaluation of Rail Inspection Programs

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...

Commuter Rail Seat Testing and Analysis

The need to determine the structural integrity and passenger safety provided by existing commuter rail seats was identified by the Construction/Structural Subgroup of the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) Passenger Rail Equipment Safety Standards (PRESS) Task Force. Recognizing...

Automated Rail Based Wheel Gauge- Phase I Report

IEM personnel conducted face to face interviews with senior officials with three major transits and four Class I railroads. We also conducted extensive phone and mail surveys soliciting the opinion of representatives of all the Class I railroads, all major private car owners and all the leading...