Railway Track & Structures 12/07

TTCI R&D FAST/HAL update Test train at FAST. The FAST test train continues to provide the rail industry with valuable information. W ith strong support from the industry, the test train at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing, Transportation Technology Center, Pueblo, Colo., continues to accumulate tonnage at a higher rate than in recent years. Two hundred sixty three million gross tons (mgt) were accumulated during 2006 and the first six months of 2007. The increased tonnage and 39-ton axle loads ensure that testing of rails, special trackwork, bridges, ties and fasteners and rail welds provides valuable information to the North American railroads at an “accelerated” rate. FAST experiments are conducted in a full-scale operating environment, under carefully controlled conditions. Such conditions are not generally found in revenue service and would be impractical to implement for extended periods of time. www.rtands.com The program is funded by the Association of American Railroads and the Federal Railroad Administration. Major donations of track and car components by railroads and suppliers contribute to the success of the program. Some recent test results are summarized here. Rail performance The increased tonnage rates and heavier axle loads that railroads are using to carry more and more freight place high demands on the rails. Suppliers have responded by producing cleaner, harder rails with improved wear and fatigue performance as their goal. As part of an evaluation of their performance, the high-hardness rails listed below have accumulated 300 mgt in a nonlubricated five-degree curve. • Nippon Steel Corporation – High carbon hypereutectoid (HEX) • JFE Steel America, Inc. – SP2 • Mittal – High carbon steel • Rocky Mountain Steel Mills – Onepercent carbon pearlitic • voestalpine – Low-alloy highcarbon rail type UHC-HSH For comparison, in addition to the state-of-the-art rails listed above, the same type of voestalpine rails used in the test ending in 2005 at FAST was also included. Because of the lubrication and operation conditions at FAST, most of the wear is on the high rail. The rail wearing most has lost 7.2 percent of its head area; the rail wearing least has lost 6.0 percent. There are control rails (NSC HEX) throughout the 1,000-foot curve. The wear of each rail is compared to the adjacent control rail. Table 1 shows the wear ratio for each of the test rails after 300 mgt. Intermittent rolling contact fatigue has developed, primarily on the low rail. There are variations between rail types and within the same rail types through the curve. Figure 1 shows two types of rail and the differences in surface condition. An investigation into the reason for the differences between rail types is underway. Early results suggest that microcleanliness (the extent or quality of nonmetallic inclusions observed by examinaby Joseph LoPresti, principal investigator, TTCI December 2007 21 Railway Track & Structures http://www.aar.com http://www.rtands.com

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Railway Track & Structures - December 2007 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Hand-Held Tools Provide the Power to Get Big Jobs Done AREMA C&S Update Striving to Solve the Riddle of Wheel Climb RTA Stages Warm Gathering in Sunny Florida in October Products and Literature People Calendar Website Directory Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

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