The aspect under discussion is alternate shape of current collection elements. Modification of their traditional shape is tackled from the viewpoint of achieving better wear resistance and reliability of the current-collector unit’s sliding contact strips. There is indicated influence exerted by the shape of the collection elements on the aerodynamic and tribological performance. Based on the obtained data there was developed alternate collection element shape version contributing to lesser wear intensity and better stability of the collector unit. There is also indicated that aerodynamics-friendly shape of current collection elements contributes to their lesser damageability and more intensive cooling. The approach to the problem under discussion taken by the authors bases upon non-equilibrium thermodynamics and self-organization theory.

The task of unified maps generation for various type locomotive safety and control devices proves to be an extremely crucial one. Its solution will lead to better traffic safety conditions and lesser electronic maps preparation costs. Railway infrastructure spatial data system (KSPD IZhT), containing coordinates of all the track objects in a high-precision coordinate system as obtained through processing of the mobile laser scanning outcomes, opens up new map generation opportunities. Information represents the total of track objects’ reflection points coordinated in three-dimentional space, evaluated within the sub-centimeter accuracy and annotated with photos, thus allowing to identify all the railway objects significant in the context of railway traffic safety provisions. The paper describes semi-automatic data origination process supporting electronic map montages generation procedure of operating domains. The presented automated generation procedures of unified electronic maps intended for various-type locomotive safety devices contribute to better productivity and unambiguity, elimination of subjective factor and consolidation of information updating process.

The paper tackles the problems of serial locomotive tires (as per GOST 398 - 210) operation under new generation freight electric locomotives 2ES10 with asynchronous traction drive, attributed to low operational resource of such tires and their insufficient reliability in terms of crack damageability. It is demonstrated that actual level of the tires’ mechanical properties and especially of strength characteristics of tire steel grade 2 as per GOST 398 - 210 is insufficient and does not comply with more tough conditions of tire loading in operation caused by the increased locomotive power rating and implementation of higher coefficient of “tire - rail” adhesion. To enhance resource and reliability of locomotive tires there were developed and tested in a laboratory environment three prototype versions of medium alloy tire steel with various content of carbon and alloying agents, improving mechanical property package up to the standards of tire operation under the new generation electric locomotives. The discussed tire steel prototypes have alloying system of Ni - Cr - Mo and differ from each other in the content of Ni (~0,5 %, ~2,0 % and ~2,3 % respectively), the main alloying agent which positive effect covers nearly all the property package of steel. By making use of special-purpose rolled specimens of steel obtained by way of laboratory melting there were conducted heat treatment modes approbation of steel prototypes and heat treatment (inclusive of heated water quenching and high-temperature tempering) of full-size tire simulant in the form of specimen with facings, creating tempered martensite microstructure with the best possible combination of strength and plastic properties all over the tire working layer It was demonstrated that in the context of obtained mechanical properties steel containing ~2 % of Ni with post-heat treatment tempered martensite microstructure, which exhibited the best test results in a part of hardness and strength (with considerable impact strength reserve) is the most prospective one.

To implement specified motion modes modern high-speed electric locomotives must be high-powered enough with hourly and continuous rating up to 10,000 kW. At 3,300 V DC electrified lines this requires current collection in excess of 3,000 A. International and domestic practices indicate that at high speed levels current pick-up worsens proportionally to the number of current collectors engaged in the interaction with contact wire. Also due to the lack of space it is rather difficult to have more than two current collectors on the roof of a modern single-unit dual-system electric locomotive. Advanced contact strip materials allow for 3,200 A continuous pick-up in motion with a single current collector. The paper contains experimental investigations’ outcomes of the PanTrac contact elements. Those investigations conducted on the task-specific rig in the OmGUPS’s laboratory facility demonstrated that wide use of such contact strips on heavy- traffic railway lines could bring long-term benefits. There are described checking procedures allowing to observe the required conditions and existing allowances.

The paper tackles the protection problem of freight cars carrying hazardous materials while being solved through use of coupler center draft gears with increased energy absorption capacity. It is demonstrated that the adopted commodity-based classification of draft gears, eligible under different energy absorption capacity requirements, ensures more reliable protection and prevention of hazards in possible emergency situations involving such cars. The method is put forward allowing for quantitative evaluation of the draft gear energy absorption capacity influence on the reduction in forces acting upon a freight car as well as on the car damageability degree in operation under emergency conditions and increase in the bearing members remaining life expectancy of the car body structure. There are presented results of the impact tests of freight cars equipped with draft gears having various energy absorption capacity added with the outcomes of these results based car loading calculations. The tests confirmed that freight car equipping with draft gears having extended energy absorption capacity contributes to considerable increase in the life time expectancy of freight car structure and increase in the safe impact speeds at which the level of forces does not exceed the car strength level (thus reducing the probability of contingencies and accident severity as well).

Notwithstanding the steady progress with mechanization and automation of humping operations block hanger still proves to be an important tool in the context of reliable marshalling yard process. The paper tackles and analyzes the results of extended tests of the hump block hanger advanced design version, lightened and strengthened by contrast to mass production block hangers now in operation at such marshalling yards as Losinoostrovskaya (Moskovskaya Railway), Likhaya (Severo-Kavkazskaya Railway) and Sol’vychegodsk (Severnaya Railway). There is presented statistics, characterizing the numbers of scrapped trial design hump block hangers and mass production ones at each of the mentioned marshalling yards and at the three marshalling yards in total. There is also analyzed the effect of the hump block hangers’ structural and material modifications (improved performance, better ergonomics, reduced share of scrapped block hangers). With new hump black hanger design version it became possible to reduce the number of such failures as cracking/ breaking away of toe caps and kipping/breaking away of side plates and fully eliminate hogging of skid. Expected service life of the new block hanger is more than twice as long as of the mass production one. There are put forward proposals aimed at further improvements of the hump block hanger design, which take into consideration the results of the block hanger heavy-duty tests at some non-mechanized hump yards.

With emergence of market relations and competitive environment there can be observed intensive market saturation with a great number of railway car products supplied by domestic and foreign manufactures. Newly designed cars vary in conception and employed materials. Such distinctions influence car maintainability indices. That’s why numerical values of these indices are of practical interest and can be used to solve such problems as determining the total life cycle costs of a car or assessing missed profit due to car idling in a maintenance depot. There is proposed experimental evaluation method of railway car maintainability indices based upon maintainability tests. Average car maintenance (repair) burden and average car maintenance (repair) time were adopted as basic indices. The paper describes main objectives and tasks of the maintainability tests, basic requirements to their organization/management and calculation procedure of the specified indices. The proposed evaluation method of railway car maintainability is of practical value since the obtained evaluation results may be of use in such applications as: setting scientifically grounded time and labour consumption standards to be applied to car maintenance and repair operations calculation of aggregated car reliability indices, such as availability, operational availability and utilization factors defining manufacturer’s warranty to customer with regard to maintenance and repair of railway cars and their element constituents

Tank calibration curve proves to be one of the most important characteristics in the context of oil products related metering and calculation operations inclusive of those performed in the environment of Unified Automated Accounting System of Diesel Fuel and Other Oil Products (EASU DT). In accordance with GOST 8.570 - 2000 all the petroleum storage reservoirs of petroleum depots (inclusive of JSC RZD fuel storage depots), boring pumps and fuel-filling stations shall be calibrated every fifth year. Nonreversible plastic deformation of reservoirs, thinning of their walls due to rusting, sagging of bottoms etc. lead to considerable calibration curve variations and possibly to errors of significance during performance of metering operations in the course of stocktaking and operators changeover as well as to other sort adverse effects. The proposed automatic method of reservoir calibration making use of fuel dispenser under conditions of routine operation of fuel storage depot contributes to better accuracy and credibility of calibration, reduction in its timing and corresponding costs. Application of such method and equipment allows to interpret unmanageable systematic error of the fuel dispenser as a random one and (with more statistics available) to reduce resulting error of fuel dispenser from ±0.25 % practically up to до ±0.05 %.

There is discussed usage pattern of the nonlinear-in-the-parameter economic and mathematical models aimed at increase in efficiency of price elasticity of demand analysis mechanism and search of optimum fees for services of railway passenger transport within the solving framework of profitability management problems. Based on the qualitative characteristics study of the price elasticity of railway passenger traffic demand observables obtained from marketing research as well as on the practice analysis of applying various type mathematical functions to market demand research there were selected five types of nonlinear-in-the-parameter economic and mathematical models for the purpose of examining their potential in the areas of price elasticity of demand analysis and profitability management. Under discussion are methodical approaches to comparative appraisal of application efficiency of various type nonlinear-in-the-parameter economic and mathematical models in the context of price elasticity of demand investigations. Also discussed are application issues of such models in the areas of optimum service fees seeking and profitability management. There was drawn application efficiency comparison of linear and nonlinear-in-the-parameter economic and mathematical models selected for the purpose of price elasticity analysis according to results of their approbation on the marketing data array characterizing services demand in the deluxe and high-speed long-distance trains. On the basis of the obtained results of the economic and mathematical models operation with the marketing information array there were investigated usage pattern and comparative performance of various type application-specific search algorithms of optimum parameters for the selected in the course of the investigation nonlinear model types while engaged in analyzing price elasticity of demand in the light of its specific character in the passenger railway transport environment.

The objective of the present work is investigation of the effect exerted by the number of inhabitants on the passenger flow value in the modern context. The conducted analysis based on the population data of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for the years 2006 and 2012, published by the Federal State Statistics Service, and passenger flow data (numbers of passenger departures from stations situated at the territories of the RF constituents for the same years) supplied by the automated database of the MIS Express-3 system. There was analyzed compatibility between the passenger flow variation values and corresponding variations of the RF population as a whole. Also discussed were population dynamics and dynamics of passenger departures by individual federal districts. For the purpose of such analysis there were introduced four categories reflecting growth and recession trends of the indicators under discussion: 1. Growth of passenger flow, growth of population 2. Growth of passenger flow, reduction in population 3. Reduction in passenger flow, growth of population 4. Reduction in passenger flow, reduction in population. By about 60 % the respective sample was assigned to the last category. The investigation under discussion demonstrated that in the present context there is no universal trend linking variations of population and passenger flow indices. One must admit that number of inhabitants does not influence passenger flow level.