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Copyright
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(Copyright © 1983, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing) |
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Abstract
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Accidents at railroad-highway crossings in which a motor vehicle ran into the side of a train during dawn, dusk, and darkness accounted for 13.6 percent of all fatalities and 21 percent of all injuries in crossing accidents during 1980. A possible remedial action for this problem is to mount retroreflective material on the sides of freight cars that, when illuminated by vehicle headlights, may give an indication of the presence of a train in the crossing.
RESULTS of measurements conducted on freight-car-mounted reflectors to provide data on the durability of reflectors in revenue service are presented. Reflective intensity measurements were made on engineer-grade retroreflective sheeting on Canadian freight cars; this material has been installed on the side sills of Canadian freight cars since 1959. Reflective intensity measurements were also made over six-month period on high-intensity reflective sheeting on 19 Boston and Maine Railroad freight cars. The Canadian reflector measurements on engineer-grade reflectors indicated rapid deterioration in the reflective intensity. Data from tests on the Boston and Maine Railroad strongly indicate that high-intensity reflectors deteriorate in the railroad environment at a similar rate, although the limited time for the high-intensity tests precludes absolute conclusions on high-intensity reflector durability. The rapid rate of degradation in reflective intensity has implications for the size of reflectors that might be mounted on freight cars, the useful life of the reflectors, the importance and scheduling of washing of the reflectors, and the cost and cost-effectiveness of reflectorization. Equations that describe the trade-off between reflector size and washing interval are developed.
Record URL:
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1983/904/904-011.pdf
Language: en |