Preliminary Development of Locomotive Crashworthy Components

Abstract

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Volpe Center are continuing to evaluate new technologies for increasing the safety of passengers and operators in rail equipment. In recognition of the importance of override prevention in train-to-train collisions in which one of the vehicles is a locomotive, and in light of the success of crash energy management technologies in cab car-led passenger trains, the Volpe Center seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of components that could be integrated into the end structure of a locomotive that are specifically designed to mitigate the effects of a collision and, in particular, to prevent override of one of the lead vehicles onto the other. This paper provides preliminary results of a research program that aims to develop, fabricate and test two crashworthy components for the forward end of a locomotive: (1) a deformable anti-climber, and (2) a push-back coupler.