ABSTRACT
The wear rate of wheels and rails on curved track has been increasing enormously in China currently on lines where high horsepowered 6-axled locomotives operating at higher traction coefficients and pulling longer trains composed of higher tonnage freight wagons are used to cope with increasingly higher traffic volume.
This paper recommands two preferable ways to improve the curving performance of powered bogies to ease the wear. The effect of waggons in causing the wear is also described based on the preliminary results obtained by field measurement, which shows that wagons take a dominant position in causing severe rail side-cutting for rails being side-cut to some extent, resulting in two point contact between wheel and rail. It suggests that in order to reduce the probability of being in two point contact, means can he taken by optimizing wheel/rail contact conditions.
