WELDED RAIL JOINT FRACTURES AND THEIR EFFECT ON 200 KM/H OPERATION

JNR conducted a series of tests to determine the effect of broken welded rail joints on trains running at high speed. A rail gap of 20 to approximately 30 mm was employed since this was considered the likely amount just after a rail fracture in winter on the New Tokaido Line. The train used for this test consisted of six 2-axle bogie type electric rail-cars with an axle-load of 15 tons. Items measured included: rail deflection, rail stress, stess on the fastening device, track vibration acceleration and sleeper stress and the like; most of these were measured using wire strain gauges. On-the-rolling-stock measurements included: wheel side thrust, whee load, bogie stress, car body vibration, axle box vibration and similar forces. The results of the test indicate that train operation on the New Tokaido Line is judged as completely safe from the point of view of possible broken welded rail joints, in that even the lateral discrepancy of ends of the broken rails and wheel side thrust at the train passing the broken point were found to be less than 1/2 of respective maximum limits for safe train operation, and values for car body vibration and other items were also found to be sufficiently small.

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  • Corporate Authors:

    JAPANESE NATIONAL RAILWAYS

    TOKYO,   Japan 
  • Authors:
    • Matsubara, K
  • Publication Date: 1964-9

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00037229
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Jul 8 1994 12:00AM