A study has been conducted of locomotive crashworthiness in a range of collision scenarios to support the efforts of the Locomotive Crashworthiness Working Group of the Federal Railroad Administration's Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) to develop locomotive crashworthiness requirements. The RSAC is a government/industry committee including all segments of the rail community, with the purpose of developing solutions to safety regulatory issues. This paper presents the results of a study of the crashworthiness of conventional and modified locomotive designs in five collision scenarios. The five collision scenarios studied are:1. in-line collision of two locomotive-led trains with trailing locomotive overriding leading locomotive 2. in-line collision of two locomotive-led trains with one colliding locomotive overriding the other 3. locomotive grade crossing collision with highway vehicle hauling logs, with principal impact on locomotive window area 4. oblique collision, locomotive with intermodal trailer 5. oblique collision, locomotive with freight car

This paper describes the results of the train-to-train impact test conducted at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado on January 31, 2002. In this test, a cab car-led train, initially moving at 30 mph, collided with a standing locomotive-led train. The initially moving train included a cab car, three coach cars, and a trailing locomotive, while the initially standing train included a locomotive and two open-top hopper cars. The hopper cars were ballasted with earth such that the two trains weighed the same, approximately 635 kips each. The cars were instrumented with strain gauges, accelerometers, and string potentiometers, to measure the deformation of critical structural elements, the longitudinal, vertical, and lateral car body accelerations, and the displacements of the truck suspensions. The test included test dummies in the operator's seat of the impacted locomotive, in forward-facing conventional commuter passenger seats in the cab car and first coach car, and in intercity passenger seats modified with lap and shoulder belts in the first coach car.During the train-to-train test, the cab car overrode the locomotive; the underframe of the cab car sustained approximately 22 feet of crush and the first three coupled connections sawtooth buckled. The short hood of the locomotive remained essentially intact, while there was approximately 12 inches of crush of the windshield center post. There was nearly no damage to the other equipment used in the test. The measured response of the trains compare closely with predictions made with simulation models.

Work is currently underway to develop strategies to protect rail passengers seated at workstation tables during a collision or derailment. Investigations have shown that during a collision, these tables can present a hostile secondary impact environment to the occupants.This effort includes the design, fabrication, and testing of an improved workstation table. The key criteria for the design of this table are that it must compartmentalize the occupants and reduce the risk of injury relative to currently installed tables. Strengthening the attachments between the table and the passenger car body will ensure compartmentalization. Employing energy-absorbing mechanisms to limit and distribute the load imparted on the abdomen of the occupant will reduce injury risk.This paper details the design requirements for an improved workstation table, which include service, fabrication, and occupant protection requirements. Service requirements define the geometry of the table, the performance of the table under normal service loads, and the maintenance of the table over the period of installation. Fabrication requirements define the limitations on material usage and construction costs. Occupant protection requirements define the ability of the table to reduce injury risk to the occupants under collision loads. The table must also conform to federal regulations pertaining to interior structures on passenger rail equipment.Four design concepts are evaluated against these design requirements. These concepts present different modes of deformation or displacement that absorb energy during impact. These concepts have been evaluated, and the highest-ranking concept involves a crushable foam or honeycomb table edge attached to a rigid center frame. Preliminary results from a computer simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of this concept in reducing the injury risk to the occupants.

A Crash Energy Management (CEM) cab car crush zone design has been developed for retrofit onto an existing Budd M1 cab car. This design is to be used in the upcoming fullscale train-to-train test of a CEM consist impacting a standing freight consist of comparable weight. The cab car crush zone design is based upon the coach car crush zone design that has been previously developed and tested.The integrated system was developed after existing national and international CEM systems were reviewed. A detailed set of design requirements was then drafted, and preliminary designs of sub-assemblies were developed. The preliminary designs were analyzed using detailed large deformation finite element software. Performance of the cab car crush zone under ideal and non-ideal loading conditions was analyzed prior to development of the final design.The key components of the design include: a long stroke push-back coupler capable of accommodating the colliding locomotive coupler, a deformable anti-climber to manage the colliding interface interaction, an integrated end frame on which the deformable anti-climber is attached, a set of primary energy absorbers designed to crush in a controlled manner while absorbing the majority of the collision energy, and a survivable space for the operator which pushes back into an electrical closet.The cab car crush zone is designed to control both lateral and vertical vehicle motions that can promote lateral buckling of the train and override of the impacting equipment. The design is capable of managing the colliding interface interaction with a freight locomotive and passing crush back to successive crush zones. Detailed fabrication drawings have been developed and submitted to a fabrication shop. In addition, existing Budd M1 cars are being prepared to receive the retrofit components.

One of the philosophies of crash energy management for passenger trains is to ensure that the vehicles remain in line during a collision so that the crush zones are fully utilized and impacts with wayside objects is prevented. Our work to develop methods of resisting lateral buckling of trains has led to a thorough study of the conditions under which it occurs. In this paper we present a review of accidents to show when buckling occurs in practice for passenger trains. The bulk of the work to be presented is based on the application of a collision dynamics computer model that incorporates several important train and track parameters, including: track/train interaction; derailment; three-dimensional motion of the vehicles (including yaw, pitch and roll); curved motion; coupler/bellmouth interaction; and end crush of the vehicles. The analysis is carried out to study the effects of number of vehicles, track curvature, and collision speed. The results show that lateral buckling is quite difficult to induce unless there are many vehicles (over about 8-10) in the case of a head-on or rear-end collision with another train, or that the train can continue moving for some distance after, say, impacting a relatively light object in a grade crossing. We also present a method to prevent or minimize lateral buckling in passenger trains and apply the computer model to assess its effectiveness.