In November, TRAIN faculty and students travelled to Colorado Springs, CO to attend the “Rail Research Week” event that brought together the 13th International Heavy Haul Association Conference and the 14th World Congress on Railway Research. The first-ever co-location of these two major international railway industry events was a tremendous opportunity to promote TRAIN research to the global freight and passenger railway community while meeting with our industry sponsors and academic collaborators.
TRAIN researchers were authors or co-authors of six papers and posters presented at the conference, including a WCRR paper entitled “Life Cycle Information Models, Proof of Concept LCA Tool and Sensitivity Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Emissions of Railway Track Maintenance Activities” presented by our collaborators at Michigan Technological University, and “Quantitative Analysis of Freight Train Length and Derailment Risk” (WCRR) presented by our collaborators at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
TRAIN lab PhD student Rydell Walthall presented two papers related to his ongoing dissertation research on optimizing the economics of railway electrification: “Incremental Diesel-Electric Freight Locomotive Conversions as a Pathway to Decarbonization” (IHHA) and “Options for Decarbonizing Commuter Rail on a Freight Corridor – a Case Study in Central Texas” (WCRR).
TRAIN lab PhD student Steven Shi presented a portion of his dissertation work in the form of an IHHA e-poster entitled “Simulation and Optimization Approach to Identify Routes Maximizing the Diesel Energy Savings Potential of Battery Electric Locomotives”.
Finally, Prof. Dick presented a WCRR paper entitled “Attracting a New Generation of Railroaders in North America through K-12 Activities and Programs” authored with Dr. Pasi Lautala from Michigan Tech. For this paper, Dr. Dick and Dr. Lautala were subsequently honored with the WCRR Award for Best Paper Inspiring the Future of Rail Transport!
