Chapter 4
Railroad Research and Development Program

Section 4.10
R&D Facilities and Equipment

Projects in this element are for acquiring, upgrading, and maintaining FRA-owned facilities and equipment required to accomplish the entire spectrum of railroad research objectives. This activity supports the goal in the U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Development Plan for DOT to have a “world-class transportation R&D capability.”  FRA's R&D facilities and equipment includes the 52-square mile Transportation Technology Center (TTC) near Pueblo, Colorado; two research and test cars, and several portable measurement devices to support field testing requirements.

TTC (Figure 4.10.1) serves as the Nation's railroad research center.  It includes 11 major buildings, 50 miles of track, and a variety of locomotives, cars, and laboratory testing equipment. The center, which employs about 280 people, is operated under contract by TTCI, a subsidiary of the AAR. TTC is used by the FRA, other government agencies, the railroad industry, individual railroads, transit operators, suppliers, and foreign organizations—with each project funded by the organization that requests the work.  A wide range of locomotives, cars, track components, and components for freight, passenger, transit, and high-speed rail operations are tested at the site.  

A small sample of TTC's facilities and activities: TTC's 13.6-mile high speed test track served as a proving ground for Amtrak's Acela trains and for the experimental non-electric high speed locomotive being developed under the Next Generation High Speed Rail Technology

Figure 4.10.1.  FRA's Transportation Technology Center

Demonstration Program; a freight train running on the 2.7-mile High Tonnage Loop generates tonnage and wear on track and equipment components to help identify methods and materials for withstanding heavier freight car axle loads; rail and wheel defects are investigated in the metallurgical laboratory; the hazardous materials training school teaches emergency response to accidents involving railroad shipments of toxic liquids and compressed gases, with full-scale practice accident sites—and real fire.  

In addition to the fixed facilities at TTC, the FRA owns and operates a pair of research rail cars to support the track research program.  These rolling laboratories are, to a great extent, products of FRA R&D; they contain instrumentation and data processing techniques specially designed for conducting railroad research within the railroad environment. 

In 2000, FRA acquired a retired passenger car from Amtrak and had it refurbished and equipped for research purposes.  This car, T-16 (Figure 4.10.2), is now capable of making track measurements at speeds up to 165mph.  It can measure track geometry, ride quality, rail profile, and wheel/rail force parameters based on FRA Track Safety Standards for high-speed operations. It also serves as a track research instrumentation platform.  That is, in addition to making track measurements, it also serves as a means for developing and testing the instrumentation, software, and equipment which produces the measurements and processes the recorded data.  While certain instrumentation remains permanently in place on T-16, others are installed and removed to meet the needs of particular tests and research efforts.

R&D's other research car, T-6, serves as host to the Gage Restraint Measurement System (GRMS), which measures the track's ability to maintain gage to preclude a wide-gage derailment.  This product of FRA R&D is a performance-based inspection system that has been widely accepted and applied by the railroad industry, and has recently been incorporated in the FRA track safety standards.  The main GRMS component - the split axle wheelset, is shown in Figure 4.10.3.  This special wheelset is installed on a freight car coupled to T-6.  Instrumentation aboard T-6 collects and processes the data and controls the lateral load applied by the split axle wheelset.

Figure 4.10.2.  The New FRA High Speed Track Research Car: T-16

The FRA has a number of pieces of portable specialized equipment to ensure quick response capability with respect to field-testing and related instrumentation when necessary.  Examples of this unique and specialized equipment in the current inventory include the Ride Quality Measurement System, shown in Figure 4.10.3, to measure the vertical and lateral rail vehicle acceleration; the Lightweight Track Loading Fixture, shown in Figure 4.10.4, which is a manually operated track inspection tool to test the lateral strength of crossties and fastening systems, and complementing the GRMS with spot checking as required; and the Direct Wheel Load Measurement System, shown in Figure 4.10.5, to measure static lean of railcars which is a required data for evaluating waiver requests for higher cant deficiency operations.

Figure 4.10.3 Split Axle Gage Restraint Measurement System

        
Figure 4.10.4 Lightweight Track Loading Fixture  

 
Figure 4.10.5. Portable Ride Quality Measurement System

Figure 4.10.6. Direct Wheel Load Measurement System

Through the combination of FRA-owned equipment and contractor technical support services, the FRA has been able to maintain the capability to independently evaluate track and structure integrity through quick-response instrumentation, test support, and materials testing.  The FRA also has specialized portable equipment to provide a quick response capability, and for cases where full-sized cars are not practical or necessary.

The objectives of this element are to provide the FRA with the type and quality of facilities and equipment needed to meet its research mission.  These objectives include:

Expected Outcomes

• Responsiveness to FRA mission requirements with respect to track safety evaluations.
  
  
• Expedited wide spread deployment of new technologies such as GRMS that have the potential for significant improvement in track safety.
  
  
• A test platform for "smart technologies" for track safety evaluations which add to current safety exceptions reporting, and be predictive and prescriptive in scheduling and specifying the required corrective actions, simultaneously benefiting safety and economy.
  
  
• Meet FRA’s needs for safety-critical field test data relative to aspects of both high-speed and heavy-axle freight railcars.
  
  
• Maintain a railroad research facility that can be used to evaluate track and vehicle performance based on safety standards and performance guidelines, and perpetuate future improvements.

Project Descriptions

Transportation Technology Center (TTC)

TTC is now over thirty years old.  Many elements, such as building roofs, have reached or are nearing the end of their useful life, and some equipment is becoming obsolete and is uneconomic to upgrade.  These items must be replaced.  Changes in building codes, regulations, technology, and testing demands, also dictate improvements.

While the contractor operating TTC for the FRA takes responsibility for a substantial share of maintenance and capital investment, the Federal Government, as owner of the facility and landlord, also bears responsibility for investments and improvements needed to maintain state-of-the-art research capabilities, to comply with changing safety and environmental regulations and practices, and to ensure that TTC can meet Government research requirements.  This sharing of responsibility is an important part of the agreement between the FRA and TTCI.  The following improvements will permit the FRA to fulfill its responsibility for TTC and will help TTC to remain a state-of-the-art research facility:

• Upgrade of the water distribution system for fire protection and domestic water supply.
  
  
• A site master plan to properly tie future infrastructure plans with current facilities, utilities, and available land area.
  
  
• Mitigation of environmental deficiencies, including freon in older air conditioning systems.
  
  
• Roof and exterior restorations on four major buildings.
  
  
• Additional telephone and communications lines to accommodate expected demand and to meet current technological standards.
  
  
• Completion of the vehicle tracking system, begun in 2000, to provide better information on the location of vehicles to the TTC’s Operations Center and to serve as a test bed for train control research.  (See Section 4.6 in this Plan ).
  
  
• A facility for maintaining high-speed trains to support the high-speed test track, which became operational in 1999.  This facility would require a wheel truing machine, a drop table, and overhead cranes.
  
  
• A fire sprinkler system for the main office building.
  
  
• Safety appliances in several buildings to meet changing safety code requirements.
  
  
• Resurfacing and other improvements to roads and parking areas.
  
  
• Electrical system upgrades in several areas, including the Transit Test Track and Railroad Test Track. 

Track Research Car T-16

With the initiation of higher speed passenger train service between Washington and Boston and the issuance of track safety standards for speeds up to 200 mph, accurate measurements requiring sophisticated instrumentation have become essential for evaluating track-train system performance.  FRA's research car, T-16 provides this capability and will permit further refinement in performance measures at higher speeds.  T-16 is also needed to examine future high-speed corridors and routes intended for upgrading to higher maximum speeds, and to monitor and perform research at the TTC's high-speed test track, and on the Northeast Corridor.  In addition to regular maintenance, T-16 will need instrumentation upgrades to fulfill its high- speed mission.

T-16 also serves more broadly for improving track inspection for conventional passenger and freight operations.  Of the present 55 track-related cause codes in the FRA’s Accident/Incident database, analysis indicates that 22 of these causes are amenable to detection using five currently available automated inspection techniques, with the remaining 33 accident causes currently requiring visual/physical inspections.  Further analysis indicates that with the addition of new technologies such as the Vertical Modulus Measurement System and the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), automated inspection for 26 of the remaining 33 track accident causes may be possible.  T-16 will permit the development and the integration of these technologies to improve track safety inspection.

Track Research Car T-6

The GRMS is currently deployed with the T-6 railcar, an almost 40-year old US Army surplus car that is increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain.  The Office of R&D has planned to upgrade the aging T-6 to provide a self-propelled platform and to update the data collection, location identification, and communication systems.  The GRMS (split axle) truck will be reconditioned and retrofitted to the new platform to minimize impact on system availability and to control costs.