Top of Rail Friction Control as a Means to Mitigate Damaging Lateral Loads Due to Overbalanced Operation of Heavy Axle Load Freight Traffic in Shared High Speed Rail Corridors

The use of Top of Rail friction management (TORFM) to reduce lateral forces has been well established in both freight and passenger systems. In this paper the authors discuss how TORFM provides an important tool to track designers who need to balance the super-elevation requirements for both high speed trains and slower freight traffic. Data from full scale heavy haul revenue service case studies are presented and discussed with a particular emphasis on the mitigating role that can be played by appropriate TOR friction management strategies in shared High Speed Rail corridors.Copyright © 2010 by ASME