United States Department of Transportation
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TRIS Online Accession Number:01158543
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Abstract:Travel through the diverging route of a turnout can produce high lateral forces and accelerations, particularly in the areas of the switch point and frog. These higher lateral forces and accelerations require slower operating speeds and have adverse effects on ride quality and component life. This study was aimed at finding a low-cost means to reduce lateral forces and accelerations so that safe speeds through turnouts could be increased. Meeting this objective required that the key turnout dimensions of lead length and frog angle be kept fixed so that no track reconfiguration would be needed and the new design could fit within the existing turnout space. The objective was achieved by reducing the switch angle in the conventional American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) turnout, along with lengthening the switch points and reshaping and shortening the curved closure. When applied to a No. 20 turnout (Figure 2), dynamic simulations and field measurements showed that this design would allow diverging speeds to be increased from the current limit of 45 mph to 55 mph without producing peak wheel/rail forces and lateral accelerations, which exceed those produced with traditional turnout geometry.
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[PDF-134.97 KB]
