Bogies & Wheelsets In-Depth Focus 2018

• Maximising the use of condition monitoring systems
  Railways have an increasing number of condition monitoring systems available to them, capturing a wide variety of track and rolling stock parameters. By understanding how these systems work, and combining datasets to monitor key parameters, railway owners and operators can maximise the value of their assets. Clinton Smalley, Team Leader – Rolling Stock at Monash University’s Institute of Railway Technology, explores further.
• TTCI delivers important wheelset research
  Wheelsets are perhaps the most critical rolling stock component for ensuring safety, efficiency, and reliability in railway operations. Accordingly, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) directs a portion of its annual research programme toward improvements in the design, materials, and inspection methods of wheelset components – primarily wheels and bearings. This work is conducted by the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AAR and a global leader in railway research, simulation, and full-scale testing. In this article, TTCI colleagues Scott Cummings, Anish Poudel, Dustin Clasby, and Kerry Jones describe some of the wheelset-related work conducted by the centre.
• RUN2Rail: New ideas and concepts for the next generation of running gear
  Prof. Stefano Bruni from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano provides an overview of the RUN2Rail project (part of the Shift2Rail initiative) and its goal to identify and develop the key methods and tools that are required to allow the design and manufacture of the next generation of running gear.
• Examining components to understand the lifetime of rolling stock
  It is critical that rail fleet managers can calculate and understand a vehicle’s remaining lifetime. From a structural point-of-view, test and analysis centre, CETEST, has developed a strategy which takes the available background information of components and examines it with additional calculations, tests and inspections to provide accurate evaluations. Test Engineer, Lara Erviti, explains more.