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TOP OF RAIL FRICTION CONTROL |
Quantifying the Benefits of Top of Rail Friction Control (continued)
Suppliers had a voice in the discussion, as well. Kelsan Technologies Corp., and its parent company Portec Rail Products, Inc., which together represent the primary supplier of TOR friction modifiers and wayside application systems reiterated key points and identified additional research and development needs. These include research into:
• A validated model to predict fuel savings on a range of specific territories and operations, including grades, curvatures, traffic, locomotive fleet, train handling. This is critical in establishing the magnitude of fuel savings. It also quantifies an "expense dollars" benefit that will positively impact the operating ratio, which was identified by the railroaders present as the biggest economic barrier to more widespread TOR implementation.
• TOR systems' ability to mitigate rolling contact fatigue, rail surface damage and corrugation.
• The ability to utilize lower-cost track components where TOR is in use.
• The effectiveness of TOR systems on long tangents.
• Evaluation of new applicator concepts.
• Load/curving force measurement using rail deflection gauges or other measurement devices.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is the need for railways, researchers and suppliers to collectively address the economic issues associated with how TOR systems are expensed. The categorization of capital purchasing vs. consumables (as defined by current railroad accounting rules) is a major impediment to TOR implementation. Applicators, for example, are typically capital costs, while consumables — greases or friction modifiers — are operation costs. Often, the department that "pays" for the system does not get credit for the savings that accrue to other departments
Railways are looking for ways to quantify the economic return associated with the use of TOR systems, based on curvature, grades, tonnage, speed, direction of traffic, and other parameters. They are attempting to capture track-related data on TOR systems' effect on rail wear, rail surface conditions, rail grinding cycles, the lives of track components and conditions such as gauge widening and rail rollover. They are also examining TOR systems' effect on wheel wear and surface conditions and the wear rates of mechanical components.
Some of these issues are subjects of AAR- and FRA-funded research. Others are not research issues, per se, but would accelerate implementation of TOR systems. In either case, the industry will benefit from the ability to better quantify the benefits and savings associated with better, more extensive TOR friction control.
Richard Reiff is Principle Investigator at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc.
