RELIABILITY AND FAILURE ANALYSIS OF HIGH UTILIZATION RAILWAY CARS

Mathematical models for failures in high utilization cars manufactured in 1965 and 1966 have shown that the car failure rate and car reliability can be adequately described using a Weibull distribution. The reliability of Trailer Train high-utilization cars after ten years of operation exceeds 0.99. In other words, after ten years service, 990 of every thousand cars purchased would be operating without failure. For five years, the reliability has only slightly decreased from one. Fewer than two cars per thousand will have failed after only five years of operation. It has been clearly demonstrated in this study that failures can be reduced through proper inspection and maintenance. If a standard reliability or car failure rate were specified by federal standards, it would be a simple matter to establish a matching inspection interval. Unfortunately, these do not exist in the Federal Car Safety Standards.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contributed by the Rail Transportation Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for presentation at the Winter Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 10-15, 1978.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Mechanical Engineers

  Two Park Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5990
• Authors:
  • Bray, D E
  • Stubbings, M D
• Publication Date: 1978-7-7

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 7 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile rack cars; Derailments; Failure analysis; Flat cars; Freight cars; Inspection; Maintenance management; Maintenance practices; Mathematical models; Piggyback transportation; Planning; Regulations; Reliability; Trailer on flat car; Vehicle components
• Uncontrolled Terms: Performance analysis
• Old TRIS Terms: Freight car inspection; Government regulations; Trailer train
• Subject Areas: Law; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00188058
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Report/Paper Numbers: 78/WA/RT-1 Conf Paper
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 3 1979 12:00AM