The article presents the results of study of the interaction processes of a brake shoe and a wagon on the level ground and a 30 ‰ bias during braking operation. The static characteristics of the axial forces, acting upon the brake shoe, as well as their maximum values are defined. It is shown that the car-shoe intercation is characterized by a complex oscillation process of the shoe, containing both low- and high-frequency components of the change of axial effort.

The article describes methods of defining the service life and residual resource of the rolling stock running gears on the basis of bench test of a small number of spare parts with the various service life, developed by State Research Institute of Car Building, All-Ukrainian Research Institute of Railway Transport, State Enterprise «Ukrainain Research Institute of Car Buiding». On the basis of the comparative analysis of these techniques, their advantages and disadvantages are shown.