Derailment - Wheel and Truck Failures

Wheel and Truck Failures

Wheel fracture derailments are quite rare. This is partly due to the Federal Railroad Administration's requirement for 1,000-mile (1,600 km) undercarriage inspections for trains operating in the U.S. Also, a variety of defect detectors en route would highlight most wheel and truck failure precursor conditions. Some reasons for wheel and truck failures are:

  • Hot axlebox. This has been almost eliminated as freight car (goods wagon) trucks are transitioned from a simple bearing to a roller bearing design.
  • Fracture of axle. Some freight train derailments have been caused by axle fractures, but these are relatively rare events.
  • Fracture of wheel. This is also a rare event. However, the failure mode received a great deal of attention due to the InterCity Express (ICE) train's wreck in Eschede, Germany. The composite wheel then used on the ICE, which includes a rubber inner tire, failed catastrophically, resulting in a 100 mph (160 km/h)+ derailment that sent a train into a support pillar for a highway overpass. The overpass crashed down on top of the train, causing many fatalities.

At present, several technologies are available to detect abnormal wheel and truck conditions:

  • Hot axlebox detector
  • Dragging equipment detector
  • Wheel impact load detector
  • Derailment detector

Read more about this topic:  Derailment

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