IHHA 2023 in Rio
In late August, TRAIN faculty and students travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to attend the 12th International Heavy Haul Association Conference and present several research papers and posters. Prof. Dick presented on work to develop the Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) model to investigate different freight rail decarbonization strategies.
Steven Shi presented on his work to investigate the adoption rate of heavy axle loads for different freight commodities by US railroads.
The conference concluded with a technical visit to view track maintenance activity and train operations on the MRS rail network in the interior north of Rio.
Scholarship winner!
2023 Rail Planning Conference
In mid-May, Prof. Dick travelled to Fort Worth TX to attend the 2023 INFORMS Freight Rail Planning & Operations Conference hosted by BNSF Railway. Prof. Dick was part of the INFORMS Railway Applications Section committee that planned the event, and delivered a presentation entitled “Modeling the Network Effects of Yard Congestion and Disruptions”.
RailBelgrade 2023
In late April, TRAIN faculty and students traveled to Belgrade, Serbia for RailBelgrade 2023, the 10th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (ICROMA). Prof. Dick was honored to deliver a lecture on yard design and capacity as part of the pre-conference Mini Course and also chair one of the conference sessions.
Jiaxi Zhao presented “Predicting and Measuring Service Disruption Recovery Time in Railway Gravity Hump Classification Yards”. This paper was selected to receive a “Top Ten Best Papers of RailBelgrade 2023” award!
Steven Shi presented a poster entitled “Simplified Train Consist Planner to Drive Simulations of Alternative Energy Locomotive Deployment Strategies to Lower the Carbon Emissions of Freight Rail Transportation” on his work to develop a streamlined train planner to support modeling alternative energy locomotive deployment strategies under our ARPA-E project.
Matt Parkes presented his paper co-authored with Geordie Roscoe on “Evaluating the Potential for Platoons of Self-Propelled Autonomous Railcars (SPARCs) to Provide Short-Haul Intermodal Service
on Low-Density Rail Corridors”. This paper describes our ongoing corridor simulation work for Parallel Systems to model their battery-powered vehicles designed to transport shipping container by rail.
We were also excited to see Niloofar Minbashi from KTH Swedish Royal Institute of Technology present “Application of Simulation-assisted Machine Learning for Yard Departure Prediction”, summarizing our collaborative work on this topic.
Finally, the conference concluded with a visit to the rail freight terminal outside Belgrade where the group viewed train operations at the container and freight transload facility!
New Journal Publication!
Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Jiaxi Zhao and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper is related to Jiaxi’s work on investigating the performance of freight railway hump classification yards subject to variation in arriving train volume due to daily, weekly and longer-range fluctuations in traffic demand. The work was performed using an original simulation model that Jiaxi created in AnyLogic.
The reference and DOI link for the paper is as follows:
Zhao, J., and C.T. Dick. 2023. Quantifying the influence of volume variability on railway hump classification yard performance with AnyLogic simulation. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981231160.
New Journal Publication!
Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Geordie Roscoe and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper is related to the a research project that developed an original rail corridor simulation model and dispatching logic capable of comparing train performance under different densities of virtual signal blocks in addition to conventional fixed blocks and full moving block systems. This paper focuses an the application of the model to a long US freight rail corridor with a mix of extended double track and single-track segments.
The reference and DOI link for the paper is as follows:
Roscoe, G.S., and C.T. Dick. 2023. Comparing the effectiveness of fixed, virtual, and moving block train control systems on a mixed single- and double-track US freight rail corridor. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981231158641.
New Journal Publication!
Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Geordie Roscoe and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Part C academic journal! This paper is related to the study to develop and examine the performance of different train following control algorithms for operation with moving blocks funded by the Federal Railroad Administration and completed with our collaborators at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Vanderbilt University and Michigan Technological University.
The reference and DOI link for the paper is as follows:
Choobchian, P., G. Roscoe, C.T. Dick, B. Zou, D. Work, K. Zhang, Y. Wang and Y-C Hung. 2023. Leveraging connected vehicle platooning technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of train fleeting under moving blocks. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. 148(3): 104026. doi: 10.1016/j.trc.2023.104026.
Long Trains Study
Prof. Dick has been appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine consensus committee studying the “Impacts of Trains Longer Than 7,500 Feet“. The consensus committee will examine factors associated with the operation of longer trains, including train dynamics and handling, braking, distributive power, communications and training. The study scope also includes investigating the impacts of longer trains on labor and crew requirements, highway rail grade crossings, passenger rail operations and air quality. The study was requested by Congress and is sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration. The study is scheduled for completion in summer 2024.
New Journal Publication!
Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Jiaxi Zhao and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Accident Analysis & Prevention academic journal! This paper is related to the study comparing unit and manifest train derailment risk funded by the Federal Railroad Administration and led by our collaborators at Rutgers University.
The reference and DOI link for the paper is as follows:
Kang, D., J. Zhao, C.T. Dick, X. Liu, Z. Bian, S.W. Kirkpatrick and C-Y Lin. 2023. Probabilistic risk analysis of unit trains versus manifest trains for transporting hazardous materials. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 181(3): 106950. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2022.106950.