Since 1976, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Association of American Railroads (AAR) have worked together to improve the safety and cost effectiveness of the railroad infrastructure under increasing axle loads. Much of this work has been carried out at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) in Pueblo, Colorado, USA, at its Facility for Accelerated Service Testing (FAST), which was built in 1976 to test the effects of increased axle loads (29.5 t) on railroad track structures. In this respect, in 1988, building on the know-how gained during the early experiments with the 29.5t axle loads, the Heavy Axle Load (HAL) Research Program was initiated, whereby researchers increased the axle loads to 35 t, considered to be a potential future axle loading. A true optimisation of design and maintenance of heavy-haul railroad track can only be achieved by treating the track and rolling stock as a system. This article looks at some of the research findings obtained with respect to the track and rolling stock, and their application in practice.
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