AbstractIn this paper, a vehicle track coupling dynamic model including bearing outer ring defects is built, the time history of the axle‐box vibration acceleration and the time history of the bearing roller‐outer raceway contact load under the condition of random track irregularity on the Beijing‐Tianjin line are obtained by simulation calculation. The results show that when the outer ring defect of the bearing occurs, the axle box will generate high‐frequency vibration at the resonance peak in the vertical and lateral directions. When the defect on the bearing outer ring is in the small width of 1 mm, the roller only imposes one impact when passing through the defect area. However, when the width exceeds 3 mm, the large defect causes the roller to impose a double impact on the lateral direction of the axle box, due to changes in bearing clearance in the passing‐through process. When the running speed of the train is about 250 km h−1, the width of bearing outer ring defects needs to be limited to within 1 mm, to minimize a series of problems such as structural fatigue caused by the increased bearing roller‐outer raceway contact load caused by bearing outer ring defects.