PLANNING THE FACILITY FOR ACCELERATED SERVICE TESTING

This paper describes the planning of the "first" experiment, that is, the first several months of operation of the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing, built at the Department of Transportation's Test Center in Pueblo, Colorado. The Facility for Accelerated Service Testing is a 4.8-mile track loop over which a 9500-ton train operates for up to 16 hr per day. By performing this operation, the track is subjected to a million gross tons per day and the vehicles travel up to 640 miles per day. Three hundred days of operation per year will subject the track to 300,000,000 gross tons and the vehicles traverse approximately 200,000 miles. This represents a tenfold increase in the amount of traffic to which the track is subjected and the amount of mileage the vehicles travel over normal revenue service. The track, consisting of 22 different track test sections and mechanical tests in 13 component areas, enables evaluation of various track constructions and mechanical equipment ten times sooner than would have been possible in actual revenue service. The entire project was realized in less than one year because of the enthusiastic cooperation by the Federal Railroad Administration, the railroad and railroad supply industry, the Railway Progress Institue, the Association of American Railroads, and the Transport Development Agency of Canada.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contributed by the Rail Transportation Division of the ASME for presentation at the Joint ASME-IEEE Railroad Conference held in Washington, D.C., March 30-April 1, 1977.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Mechanical Engineers

  Two Park Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5990
• Authors:
  • Martin, G C
  • Lundgren, J R
  • Punwani, S K
• Publication Date: 1977-3-30

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 11 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Inspection; Life cycle analysis; Railroad rails; Railroad tracks; Service life; Test facilities; Vehicle components; Wear; Wheels
• Identifier Terms: Transportation Technology Center
• Uncontrolled Terms: Performance analysis
• Old TRIS Terms: Fast facility; Track component investigations; Track structures
• Subject Areas: Design; Railroads; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00152431
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Report/Paper Numbers: Paper 77-RT-10 Conf Paper
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 11 1977 12:00AM