The Government of the Russian Federation has set the task of expanding the field of application of gaseous fuels in the national economy. In accordance with this task, an agreement of June 17, 2016 was developed on cooperation between PJSC Gazprom, JSC Russian Railways, JSC Sinara Group, JSC Transmashholding in the use of natural gas as a motor fuel, which provides for the production of shunting gas locomotives and mainline diesel locomotives and gas turbine locomotives. This work is a continuation of the work begun in the 1990s to create, fine-tune and test diesel locomotives using natural gas as a motor fuel. The conversion of diesel locomotives to gaseous fuel can be carried out in two ways: creation of diesel locomotives with gas piston engines and the modernization of diesel locomotives of the existing fleet by converting the diesel engines of these locomotives to use the gas-diesel cycle. A comparison of these options is given and solutions are proposed that allow using gas-diesel cycle on diesel locomotives. Mathematical models for calculating the performance indicators of a gas-diesel generator plant in operating modes and separately for the fuel supply process are presented, their features and some calculation results are presented. The experimentally determined reasons for the impossibility of operation of the power plant in the gas-diesel cycle of a shunting diesel locomotive based on TEM18 below the fourth position of the driver's controller are theoretically substantiated. The minimum required structural changes to the standard fuel equipment are determined, which are necessary to ensure stable operation of a diesel locomotive on gaseous fuel. A comparative assessment of the efficiency of converting diesel locomotives to gaseous fuel is carried out and the cost of fuel consumed per hour of operation is determined, depending on the degree of fuel replacement with gas when the locomotive is operating in average operating modes.

Heat-strengthened rails of the R65 type are the main type of rails used on the railway network of Russian Railways. Reducing the number of cropped and acutely defective rails is possible due to the rational use of the design features of intermediate rail fasteners and their current content.

The article presents study results of the stiffness influence of intermediate fasteners on the operational durability of rails. The general statistics of the use of various types of intermediate rail fastenings on the network of Russian railways is considered. The main results of previously published studies on the effect of the stiffness of intermediate rail fasteners on the accumulation of contact fatigue damage in rails are briefly presented.

Calculations of the accumulation of contact-fatigue damages in rails, carried out by the authors, are based on the data on the vertical and horizontal transverse stiffness of intermediate rail fastenings obtained from the results of bench tests. Calculations of the accumulation of contact-fatigue damage were carried out using the “Universal Mechanism” software package. In the process of modeling, four types of intermediate rail fasteners were considered: ARS-4, ZhBR-65Sh, ZhBR-65PShM and W-30. Calculation results were obtained for a curve with a radius of 650 m on a continuous welded track section.

Consumption of diesel fuel by the special rolling stock of Russian Railways per year amounts to tens of thousands of tons, and the issue of reliable accounting and control of its consumption is quite urgent. Currently, part of the special self-propelled rolling stock is equipped with on-board systems for measuring fuel consumption, however, in many units of this equipment, fuel control and accounting is carried out in manual mode. Massive introduction of on-board fuel consumption measurement systems on special self-propelled rolling stock is constrained, on the one hand, by the rather high cost of fuel sensors used on locomotives, on the other hand, by the increased error of relatively inexpensive automotive capacitive fuel level sensors. As part of the laboratory tests of such sensors, it was determined that when they operate on fuel of the same grade, the error corresponds to the passport and is at the level of 1 %, and when operating on fuel of different grades without additional recalibration, the error can reach 4 % or more. This is largely due to the simplified technology for measuring the amount of fuel in units of volume and insufficient compensation for changes in the density of diesel fuel. To solve this problem, an alternative to standard technology for determining the amount of fuel using automotive capacitive fuel level sensors is proposed, in which the dependence of the readings of these sensors on the fuel density at a standard temperature, once obtained in laboratory conditions, is used. Proposed technology of using automotive capacitive fuel level sensors on a special self-propelled rolling stock will allow keeping its relative reduced error at the level of 1 % and will provide measurement of the amount of fuel in units of mass.

Considered are the issues of using electric energy storage system in the traction power supply of direct current of a single-track section. An overview of the main directions of domestic and foreign research in the field of using these systems to increase the capacity and energy efficiency of power supply systems is given. Modeling the operation of energy storage system in traction power supply is based on the calculation of load graphs within the boundaries of inter-substation zones, formed depending on the conditions for the passage of trains and traction load on the railway section. The main provisions of the method for choosing locations and determining the parameters of energy storage system in traction power supply are considered. On the example of one of the inter-substation zones of the Sverdlovsk railway, the influence of the power of the active sectioning station on the increase in the minimum voltage level at the pantograph of the electric rolling stock is shown. The graphs of the degree of charge and the corresponding frequency distributions are given, which make it possible to evaluate the operating conditions of the electric energy storage system depending on the conditions for the formation of the traction load, as well as the graphs of the load of the electric energy storage system and the corresponding charging characteristics for the operating conditions at the sectioning post. On the example of the section under consideration, the dependence of the discharge depth of the electric energy storage system on the nominal energy intensity is shown. Based on the results of calculations, an evaluation was made of the options for passing train batches in the even and odd direction in comparison with the schedule of the performed train operation. The range of variation of the nominal values of power and energy intensity of the electric energy storage system is obtained. Comparison of the accumulation system parameters for single- and double-track sections of railways, including those with a predominance of passenger traffic, is carried out.

Stable operation of railway transport is of decisive importance in the development of the country's economy. Railway stations of the Russian Railways network perform a significant amount of work on processing and handling train traffic.

Large technical stations on the Russian Railways network in most cases are located at the junction of railways (railway polygons), where locomotive crews and locomotives changes take place as well as various types of traction (electrified lines with direct and alternating current).

With the development of polygon technologies on the Russian Railways network, it becomes necessary to optimize the traction resource management process to ensure the stable operation of train traffic from its origin to the point of its destination. At technical stations with locomotive turnover points, they are changed, as well as maintenance (TO-2) and equipment.

The article discusses in more detail one of the elements of the daily budget for the use of locomotives — finding locomotives in one of the types of downtime — at the locomotive maintenance point. As an example of the queuing of traction resources, the point of maintenance of locomotives of the Karymskaya station is given, where the stalls for performing TO-2 are one of the types of devices of the locomotive economy, according to which the available capacity of the locomotive circulation section is determined. Based on the analysis of the results of the operation of the locomotive maintenance point of the Karymskaya station for 2017, a method has been developed that allows, using in the calculations the minimum interval for the supply of trains to the station, to determine the rational number of stalls m_ст, necessary for the development of promising volumes of freight transportation and increasing the capacity of railway lines.

The most important business of the domestic railway industry is freight transportation, which decisively affects the financial and economic stability and efficiency of the Russian railways. Successful activities in the field of rail freight transport are determined by both the volume and the structure of these transportations. In the long term perspective, there is a risk of a reduction in the freight base of railways due to the global paradigm of decarbonization of the economy, as well as the implementation of a “circular economy”, which assumes a continuous cycle of material processing with close to 100% utilization of products that have completed their life cycle and the use of appropriate materials for the production of new products. Reducing the consumption of coal, oil and petroleum products in the course of decarbonization will lead to a corresponding reduction in the volume of their transportation by rail, and the implementation of the “closed cycle economy” — to a reduction in the transportation of non‑hydrocarbon raw materials, which also occupies a significant share in rail transportation. Taking into account the noted trends, the article provides an expert categorization of goods transported by rail by the level of long‑term prospects. All freights are divided into four categories: non‑promising, low‑promising, promising and highly promising. Based on the proposed categorization with the use of retrospective data on rock loading of freights on railway transport, a significant change in the structure of loading was revealed in terms of its long‑term prospects. For a generalized evaluation of the level of long‑term prospects of the loading structure, a new indicator is proposed — an indicator of long‑term prospects of loading. Its retrospective analysis was carried out. The results of the analysis are given a qualitative evaluation based on the developed scale of zonal values of this indicator. The necessity of solving the problem of timely replacement of freights, the traffic volumes of which will decrease in the future due to structural changes, with freights with a higher level of long‑term prospects, has been substantiated. The target structure of freight loading on the railway network is proposed and the time horizon on which it is desirable to achieve it is substantiated. The directions for the development of research on this topic have been determined.

The article reflects the most important areas of work of scientists and employees of the scientific center “Express” and their contribution to the formation and development of information technology since the founding in 1959 of the Department of computer science of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Railway Transport and up to the present.

Theoretical foundations of the application of transport cybernetics in the national economy of the country were created by Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR A. P. Petrov, who was one of the first to use mathematical methods and computing technology in solving transport problems and headed the development in this direction at the institute. The practical work on the creation of the first domestic automated system for selling tickets for trains, called “Express”, was headed by B. E. Marchuk.

Since then, the “Express” system has transformed from a local ticketing system at the Kievsky railway terminal in Moscow into a powerful multifunctional international passenger traffic management system that interacts with the ticket reservation systems of European countries.

Theoretical and practical developments carried out by the scientific center have resulted in the introduction of new information technologies in the Russian Railways holding and in the railway administrations of the member states of the Commonwealth.

At present, the main activities of the staff of the scientific center are the creation of automated control system “Express” of a new generation (ACS “Express” NP) and the system of international integration of passenger transportation Express International.