Train Derailment Research Articles

Influence of the coupler and buffer device on the train collision safety

Based on the multi-body dynamics the three-dimensional train collision model including a more detailed coupler-buffer substructure is established in this paper. During the train collision, the dynamic responses of the coupler-buffer substructure are comprehensively analysed. Some key parameters, such as the coupler initial deflection angle, max-angle, plunger spring stiffness and buffer impedance force, are investigated and their effects on the train derailment are also evaluated. According to the simulation results it is indicated that at present the coupler-buffer device is designed mainly from the point of view of the normal operation condition. Compared with the normal operation, in the train collision condition the longitudinal impact force is so large that the coupler-buffer device reveals a very weak ability to anti-jackknifing. As a result, in most cases the coupler rotation angle is very large and equal to its designed max-angle. Under the effect of this large coupler rotation angle, the collided trains have a high risk to derail. The importance of the anti-jackknifing of the coupler and buffer device is illustrated in this paper, which has a great influence on the train collision safety and should not be neglected. In order to improve the safety against derailment, it is suggested to decrease the coupler’s max-angle and increase its plunger spring stiffness. Alternatively, a friction arc coupler yoke connection design is suggested to replace the current coupler yoke design.

The Long Night

The Long Night Kathryn Savage (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Can healthy fruits and vegetables grow on polluted soil? "The Long Night," from Kathryn Savage's forthcoming Groundglass: An Essay, confronts the transgressions of US Superfund sites and brownfields against land, groundwater, neighborhoods, and people. The harm dragged on, spilled, emptied, but first day slipped into humid night and the seventy-two-car freight train moved northeast from North Dakota carrying nearly eight million liters of shale oil up into Canada, where the driver stopped for the night to rest in town, where all the rail yard attendants left the yard to sleep, where later, the unsecured tank cars moved as if waking, breached and derailed and exploded, killing forty-seven people in Lac-Mégantic. It was supposed to be just a stopover for the eight million liters of shale oil that night; the town, by then, was used to trains hauling Bakken Formation crude, the transitory constancy and dull rumblings. It was [End Page 10] Saturday, around one in the morning in the city of nearly six thousand. Music from downtown pubs lifting over those who were still out, bare-armed and smoking and dancing. The disaster destroyed more than thirty buildings. Lac-Mégantic decided to flatten the still-contaminated downtown, which had continued to soak oil after the crash: six million liters, what hadn't gone up in flames. Wrecked but not destroyed, some of the Lac-Mégantic businesses impacted by proximity to the crash opened their doors for the eight hours before they were set to be flattened. Some chose to visit sections of their downtown, see shop owners they were on friendly terms with, in a gesture of collective mourning. Other gestures like this would come later: galleries, on the anniversary, showed floor-to-ceiling framed photographs of the town and its citizens before the derailment. There were consequences of trauma. From a mental health study conducted in town after the crash: 25 percent of the children surveyed showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and the rate among adults was 50 percent; 39 percent of teenagers had suicidal thoughts, a rate twice the Quebec average. Solidarity and the pain of grief rose up in the days and months and years after the town was thrust into immediate and communal violence. A plurality of death, night of terror, a cruel night. People who loved each other and loved this place absorbed all that they had so suddenly lost together. This wasn't any grief; it was oil grief; it was capital grief. In their night sky installation, Black Shoals Stock Market Planetarium, London-based artists Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway projected starlight on the inner sphere of a dome. They placed beanbags underneath, where viewers could lean back and look up. The constellations did not reflect suns or planets but instead publicly traded companies: a computer program turned the live financial activity of the world's stock exchanges into stars. The market slumped and the bright lights faded; a good day of trading, and the stars shined brightly. When I look up at night I see stars and planets, airplanes and satellites, astral bodies and industry; sometimes I cannot tell the real from the manufactured. The artists' installation imitates the co-opting of nature for corporate financial gain, critiquing the long capitalist history of colonizing and transgressing people and environments. The night sky installation hides the market that controls the sky. It performs an obfuscation. After the train derailment, three men sat trial—a train driver and engineer, a man in charge of rail circulation, and a manager of train operations—but not railway executives. It was wrong that they were the only ones to sit trial, and incomplete. How many lines of blame should be followed like track after such a violence? How wide is the reach of this disaster? My friend Gudrun says, while we walk our dogs through our neighborhood, "It's the same violence here. Just a matter of time before one of these trains derails." Around us, tankers full of liquified petroleum gas rumble past. The black cylinders are sleek as stones. There are fifty...

Quantitative analysis of freight train derailment severity with structured and unstructured data

Train safety has been a top priority in the railroad industry. Understanding accident risks is of paramount importance for prioritizing effective prevention strategies. Previous work has focused on estimating the severity of derailments and various statistical models based on structured data were used. However, unstructured data records which provide considerable information about train derailments have received minimal consideration due to a lack of procedures of processing and interpreting them. To narrow this knowledge gap, this study aims to quantitatively estimate derailment severity by considering unstructured data utilizing topic modeling. A statistical model that integrates both structured and unstructured data was established to analyze U.S. freight train derailments from 1996 to 2019. The comparative results of predictions revealed that the model with combined text information outperformed the one without the unstructured data.Quantile regression was also developed to assess various statistical distributions of derailment severity. Both models with unstructured data provide a deeper understanding of derailment severity and ultimately improve railroad safety performance.

Factors related to the presence of suicidal ideations in adolescents after a technological disaster

BackgroundThree and a half years after a technological disaster, the train derailment in Lac-Mégantic (Quebec, Canada) in 2013, a study was conducted with adolescents to determine their mental health condition. MethodData were collected from 538 young people using a self-administered questionnaire distributed at their secondary school. One question specifically concerned the presence or absence of suicidal ideations. This article compares the characteristics of high school students who had had suicidal ideations during the 12 months preceding the survey (n = 172), with other adolescents in the same age group who had not had such ideations (n = 366). ResultsThis study revealed that close to a third of respondents (32%) said that they had had suicidal ideations during the year preceding the data collection. They differed from the other respondents due to sociodemographic, psychological, educational, familial and social factors. The characteristics related to adolescents’ mental health are mainly associated with the presence of suicidal ideations. ConclusionSuicidal ideations in adolescents are a public health concern and may appear in non-negligible numbers after a disaster. This article indicates the importance after such an event of acting on all the social determinants of health in order to protect young people at risk of developing suicidal ideations and promote their recovery.

An Empirical analysis of freight train derailment rates for unit trains and manifest trains

Rail is a safe and efficient mode of transporting hazardous materials (hazmat). In the past decade, the hazmat traffic transported by unit trains has significantly increased in the United States. As a result, a comprehensive understanding of the safety and risk of hazmat unit trains is important and can contribute to the identification, evaluation, and implementation of risk mitigation strategies. Limited prior research has focused on unit train derailment risk analysis. This paper develops a quantitative analysis of freight unit train derailment characteristics and compares those statistics to non-unit, manifest trains (mixed trains). Mainline freight train derailment data on Class I railroads between 1996 and 2018 were analyzed for hazmat unit trains, non-hazmat unit trains, and manifest trains. Derailment rates, measured by three traffic exposure metrics (train-miles, ton-miles, and car-miles) were estimated and compared. The analyses showed that a unit train has a 30% lower derailment rate in terms of ton-miles and car-miles than manifest trains, while the derailment rate per million train-miles of unit trains is slightly greater than that of manifest trains. Loaded unit trains have roughly four-fold higher derailment rate in terms of train-miles and car-miles than that of empty unit trains. Within loaded unit trains, hazmat unit trains have lower derailment rates than non-hazmat unit trains. Overall, heavier and shorter loaded unit trains tend to have greater derailment rates in terms of all three traffic exposure metrics. A causal analysis was also conducted for the three types of train. Infrastructure causes were the most frequent in all train types and length followed by equipment-related causes. These statistics provided important information for rational allocation of risk mitigation resources to improve rail hazmat transportation safety.

Factors Associated with Complicated Grief Following a Railway Tragedy.

On July 6, 2013, a train with 72 crude oil tank cars derailed in the heart of Lac-Mégantic, a small municipality of 6,000 inhabitants located in Québec (Canada). This tragedy killed 47 people. Technological disasters are rarely studied in bereavement research, and train derailments even less. The goal of this article is to increase our understanding of the bereavement consequences of technological disasters. Specifically, we aim to identify the factors that lead to the experience complicated grief and distinguish from the protective factors. A representative population-based survey was conducted among 268 bereaved people, three and a half years after the train accident. Of these, 71 people (26.5%) experienced complicated grief. People with complicated grief (CG) differ significantly from those without CG in terms of psychological health, perception of physical health, alcohol use and medication, as well as social and professional relationships. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis identified four predictive factors for CG: level of exposure to the disaster, having a negative perception of the event, as well as having a paid job and low-income increase the risk of CG. The importance of having health and social practitioners pay attention to these factors of CG are discussed along with future directions for research.

Assessment of a Habitat Equivalency Analysis for Freshwater Mussels in the Upper Mississippi River

The upper Mississippi River (UMR) contains diverse, dense, and reproducing assemblages of native freshwater mussels. In the case of an injury to mussels and their habitats, such as a hazardous material spill, train derailment, or barge grounding, resource managers have few restoration strategies. Resource managers need a means to document, quantify, and mitigate adverse effects on mussels resulting from injury. Habitat equivalency analysis (HEA), developed for use with a wide variety of habitat types, is a restoration scaling technique that compares ecological services lost from injury to ecological services gained through restoration actions. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Iowa Department of Natural Resources modified the HEA for use with native mussels. The mussel HEA has been applied within the UMR to estimate the quantity of restoration needed to compensate the public for injuries to mussels due to contaminant spills and construction projects. Our objective was to describe the UMR HEA for a general audience and assess if the four biological input variables used in the mussel HEA were reasonable based on literature values. We also evaluated the performance of HEA under a range of input scenarios. Although the input estimates used in HEA were within ranges reported in the peer-reviewed literature or were supported by professional judgment in the absence of peer-reviewed literature, outcomes of the mussel HEA were highly variable and would benefit from additional research to reduce uncertainty in the biological inputs. The application of HEA to mussels provides resource managers with a tool to quantify mussel-related ecological services lost from injury and to guide restoration efforts in the UMR.

On the safety threshold of trains running on Sichuan-Tibet Railway bridges under the influence of floating ice

To investigate the running safety threshold of trains on the Sichuan-Tibet Railway bridges under the floating ice impact loads, a train-track-bridge dynamics model is established based on the theory of the train-track-bridge dynamic interaction and the design method of tuned mass damper (TMD), which uses the fluid-structure coupling method to calculate the floating ice impact loads. Taking a 5 × 32 m typical simply-supported beam bridge on the Sichuan-Tibet Railway as an example, the critical train speeds corresponding to floating ice impact loads of varying intensity are evaluated, and the effect of TMD on the running safety of the trains under extreme ice loads is investigated. The results show that the fluid effect has a significant influence on the impact loads of ice hitting the bridge pier, which cannot be ignored in the calculation. The ice impact intensities significantly reduce the train's safe speeds. Under the action of floating ice impact loads, the TMD attached to the bridge can effectively reduce the train's derailment factor and wheel unloading rate. The greater the TMD mass ratio, the more pronounced the vibration control effect.

Defect classification of railway fasteners using image preprocessing and alightweight convolutional neural network

Railway fasteners are used to securely fix rails to sleeper blocks. Partial wear or complete loss of these components can lead to serious accidents and cause train derailments. To ensure the safety of railway transportation, computer vision and pattern recognition-based methods are increasingly used to inspect railway infrastructure. In particular, it has become an important task to detect defects in railway tracks. This is challenging since rail track images are acquired using a measuring train in varying environmental conditions, at different times of day and in poor lighting conditions, and the resulting images often have low contrast. In this study, a new method is proposed for the classification of defects on rail track fasteners. The proposed approach uses image enhancement to first filter the rail images and obtain a high contrast image. Then, the rail track and sleeper positions are determined from the high contrast image. The location of the fastener is determined by applying the line local binary pattern method and the defects of the fastener are classified using an improved lightweight convolutional neural network (LCNN) model. Features are extracted from two fully connected layers of the developed LCNN model and the feature vector is constructed by concatenating these layers. The concatenated features are processed using a number of machine learning methods and the optimum classifier is chosen. Experimental results show that Cubic SVM gives the best results with a detection accuracy rate of 99.7%.

Influence of Wind Barriers with Different Curvatures on Crosswind Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Train-Bridge System

Wind barriers can effectively reduce the risk of overturning and derailment of high-speed trains running on a bridge under crosswind. However, it can adversely affect the wind resistance of the bridge. There are few studies on the aerodynamic performance of curved wind barriers. In this paper, the effects of curved wind barriers with four curvatures (0, 0.2, 0.35, and 0.50) and different train-bridge combinations on the crosswind aerodynamic characteristics of a train-bridge system are investigated. The results show that the curved wind barrier can significantly reduce the wind speed below a certain height on the bridge deck. The curved wind barrier with small curvature can better reduce the aerodynamic force of the train; however, it greatly increases the aerodynamic force of the bridge. A wind barrier with a curvature of 0.35 is recommended because it takes into account the aerodynamic characteristics of the train and bridge at the same time. The porosity of a wind barrier greatly influences the aerodynamic performance of the train on the track of the windward side of the bridge, while the wind barrier has little effects on the train on the track of the leeward side of the bridge. The aerodynamic performance of the train on the track of the windward side of the bridge is less affected by whether or not a train on the track of the leeward side of the bridge is present.

Development of hi-rail vehicle driven on metre-gauge railway/road in Thailand

This research aims to develop a pickup truck to become a hi-rail vehicle that runs on meter gauge railways in Thailand. It is intended to be used for rails maintenance or response times during train derailments and for accessing inaccessible areas via rails in emergency situations. A hi-rail vehicle can travel both on rails and roads. The guide train steel wheels set is designed to have steel wheels running on rails with the vehicle being raised above the rails using a programmable logic controller for hydraulic cylinders. The results of the road test can run at a normal speed of not more than 90 kilometers per hour. The results of the test run on the rails can run at speed of not more than 30 kilometers per hour. There is a vibration of the hi-rail vehicle due to the designed guide train steel wheels set mechanism that can be accepted.

The reliability design of inspection device based on the obstacles and the derailment

This paper introduces a kind of contact train obstacles and derailment detection device. It is composed of detection device and electric box. The energy produced by collision between obstacles and detection device and the train derailment is converted to electrical signal which can be measured, then it could control emergency braking. It can minimize the impact of foreign matter on vehicle safety or operation order after entering the vehicle limit. This system uses CPLD as the control core and adopts double redundancy design that improved the reliability of the device. It provides guarantee for train running safety and has good application prospect.

Investigation on train dynamic derailment in railway turnouts caused by track failure

Train derailments in low-speed railway turnout areas are very common due to poor track alignment and rail failures, and in extreme cases can lead to casualties and damage to infrastructure and railway vehicles. This study aims to explore the dynamic derailment behaviour caused by rail joint failures before the railway switch panel, and to understand the effects of crucial parameters on the operating safety of trains. To this end, a 3D dynamic coupled freight train-track simulation model is developed based on the MBS-FEM method. The model takes into consideration the lateral difference between rail joint sections that directly cause the wheel to rise. Flexible deformations of the rail and wheelset are modelled, and the derailment mechanism of wheel jumping and climbing in the railway switch panel is revealed. Results show that increasing the curve radius and distance between the rail joint and switch toe can effectively improve passing safety. When a sharp curve has to be placed before the switch panel due to site limitations, reducing the wheel-rail coefficient can also ensure better operating safety. This study indicates that the proposed MBS-FEM dynamic coupled derailment simulation model is able to efficiently evaluate the operating safety as a result of various wheel and track defects, and thus form a basis for providing a cost-effective platform for the future parameter optimization of railway tracks and vehicles.

Critical Analysis of Train Derailments in Canada through Process Safety Techniques and Insights into Enhanced Safety Management Systems

Canada’s rail transportation network is a critical part of Canada’s integrated supply chain which connects industries, consumers, and resource sectors to ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. One transportation activity that is essential to most industries, especially oil and manufacturing, is the rail transport of dangerous goods (DG). Although rail transportation of DG is beneficial to Canada’s economy, not paying attention to the safe transportation of these types of goods can have irreparable effects on the economy, human lives, and the environment. Recent rail accidents, such as Lake Wabamun in 2005 and Lac-Mégantic in 2013, have shown that there is still room to increase the safety of transportation of DG by rail through improving railways’ safety management systems (SMS). As a result, investigations to increase the safety of rail transportation of DG have been started. This work is part of these initiatives focusing on enhancing railways’ SMS, particularly DG main-track train derailments. The current study applied detailed root cause analysis (RCA), the bow tie analysis (BTA), and incident databases to identify the main causes and consequences of these types of accidents (2007–2017). Then, the relationship between these factors and gaps in SMS elements were identified and the frequency of each factor was investigated. The results showed that the main gaps are related to process and equipment integrity, incident investigation, and company standards, codes, and regulations. Furthermore, some useful recommendations are presented to improve the management of each SMS element and reduce these gaps.

A real-time railway fastener inspection method using the lightweight depth estimation network

Fasteners are critical components of railways that maintain the rail tracks in a fixed position. Their failure can lead to serious accidents such as train derailments, so their condition needs to be inspected periodically. Conventional image-based inspection methods fail to take full advantage of the structural features of fasteners, making them less robust in real-world environments. This paper presents a new approach for real-time fastener inspection by (1) extracting fastener regions using the YOLOv3-tiny network (2) proposing and pruning a lightweight and encoder–decoder network architecture for inferring depth information from a single RGB image of fasteners (3) fusing the RGB-D features for inspection. Compared with the image-based SVM, the F1 of RGB-D fusion-based SVM increases from 94.34% to 95.83%, illustrating the improvement of additional depth information for fastener defect inspection. The inspection system runs at 11.9 FPS, which enables real-time inspection of railway fasteners.

Investigation on the effect of skew angle on dead and live-loads in RC skew box culverts for Road Under Bridge (RUB) design

Skew box culverts are common on railway lines and highways when non-perpendicular crossings are encountered. Although various studies on the influence of skewness on culvert design have been undertaken, the majority of the work has focused on the Road Over Bridge (ROB) design. In the present study, an investigation of the effect of skew angle and topsoil fill height on the live and dead load characteristics of a two-cell reinforced concrete (RC) skew box culvert for Road under Bridge (RUB) design has been carried out. The dead and live loads considered in the present work have been calculated following the Indian Railway Standard (IRS) Bridge rule – 2014, Indian Railway Standard (IRS) Substructures and Foundation of Bridges – 2013, and Indian Standard (IS) 875part 3 – 1987. The soil fill height above the top slab varied from 2 m to 10 m with a 2 m increment for the current investigation, with skew angles ranging from 0° to 75° at intervals of 15°. The influence of skewness and soil fill height is explored in a detailed manner in this work, and the findings are provided in contrast to a straight box culvert. The dispersion diagram showing the distribution of loads is developed for the various skew angles and soil fill heights. The results revealed that the effect of skew has no influence on SIDL, lateral earth pressure, earth pressure from surcharge loads, and live load intensities from wind and footpath. However, the intensity of dynamic loads due to the axle movement of trains, derailment of trains, and Plasser’s Quick Relaying System (PQRS) loads decreases with increased skew angle. But the effect of longitudinal forces caused by the braking and traction of the trains increased as the skew angle increased. Also, the influence of skew is more pronounced at lower fill heights. The Engineers may find the results of this study valuable for building RC skew box culverts for RUB applications.

Thermal non-destructive characterization of rail networks by using Infrared Thermography and FEM simulation

Because of the repeated passage of trains, anomalies are created inside the rails in the form of cracks of different shapes and position. These are due essentially to the wheel – rail contact. They present a hazard causing at the final stage rail failure, train derailment and accidents. Detecting track anomalies has become a major issue for the entire rail industry around the world. This paper focuses on the degradation of rails in urban railways in terms of cracks. The purpose is to develop an approach to detect and predict rail breaks, which will optimize maintenance task. Infrared thermography was used in order to characterise the effect of a defect on the acquired thermogram. Different defects were considered by varying their size, depth and inclination angle with respect to the rail surface.

Psychological, Physical and Behavioral Health of Adults, 3 Years After Exposure to a Train Derailment.

In July 2013, a train derailment profoundly disrupted the tranquility of the population of Lac-Mégantic for months and even years. In 2016, we conducted a representative population-based survey among 387 people from Lac-Mégantic and 413 from other municipalities with the aim to document psychological and physical health of adults exposed to the disaster. This article examines differences between 3 groups of respondents: those who were highly, moderately or not exposed to the train accident. Khi Square analyses, odds ratios and logistic regressions were used to examine differences between the 3 groups of respondents (high, moderate and no exposure). Results show that the level of exposure to this technological disaster is strongly associated with psychological suffering, post-traumatic growth, physical heath, drinking patterns, and use of prescribed and non-prescribed drugs. We can explain these results by the nature and cause of the event as well as its consequences.

QR code communication system in medicine

The modern world is gaining momentum in the field of information technologies every day. «QR code» has become an integral part of our lives, such as paying with a smartphone, buying plane and train tickets, reading website URLs, and downloading programs and applications. The application of the QR code can be seen even in the field of education and medicine Considering this, there is a need to present information in a new, more compact form that meets the long list of requirements of the modern information society. This topic is so popular and recognized in the world that it can be discussed for a long time. Although QR codes look simple, they can store a lot of information. But no matter how much information a QR code contains, the information must be available immediately after the user scans it — hence the name Quick Response. A QR code is a convenience designed for the use of large amounts of information. The latest QR code technology is very practical for many companies. The benefit of the development of this system can be traced to such examples when there were mass accidents, plane crashes, train derailments, floods, and other disasters. Also, the current situation in Ukraine, when a rocket hit a high-rise building and many people found themselves under the rubble with serious injuries, can serve as an actual example. The relevance of QR code application in medicine will be shown in the example of this situation. QR code identification features are also provided. A comparison of a QR code with a barcode is demonstrated. The advantages of the QR code are highlighted. The method of using the QR code and the algorithm of actions for its use by medics in a disaster with a large number of injured people are presented.

Dynamic Hybrid Model for Comprehensive Risk Assessment: A Case Study of Train Derailment Due to Coupler Failure

Comprehensive risk assessment plays a significant role in railway rolling stock safety planning to prevent accidents, including rail derailment and collision. Several methods of evaluating individual sources of railway system risk, ranging from human factors to inherent system failure and environmental hazards, exist in the literature. However, the lack of a hybrid technique to integrate these multiple sources of risk holistically, including their interdependent effects, as a single framework for robust, accurate, and comprehensive risk assessment can limit risk perception and risk mitigation actions. This report proposes a dynamic hybrid model (DHM) that incorporates the Bayesian convolutional factorization and elimination method as a compound aggregation of frequency and severity distributions. The DHM validates predicted risk using Bayesian expectation–maximization machine learning with evidenced-based propagation from expert knowledge and learned data. It also incorporates sensitivity analysis to improve the predicted risk further by prioritizing the hazards with the maximum impact on the estimated risk due to organization resource constraints. A railway case study in the UK revealed that risk prediction using the DHM provided a holistic view of the risk. The results showed that the quantitative risk prediction using the DHM was significantly more robust, accurate, and holistic than that of the conventional risk-assessment method based on the inherent failure rate. This research will facilitate the comprehensive development of risk-mitigation strategies, such as improvements in staff training and wiring insulation, to decrease the likelihood of train derailment caused by semi-permanent coupler failure.