Mission

The Federal Railway Administration (FRA) research and testing facilities are located at the 52 square-mile Transportation Technology Center (TTC) near Pueblo CO, which includes laboratories and 48 miles of test tracks for testing a wide range of locomotives, cars, track structures, and components for freight, passenger, transit, and high-speed rail operations. TTC is operated by the Transportation Technology Center Inc. (TTCI), a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), under a contract with the FRA.  In addition to the FRA, other organizations use TTC’s testing facilities, including government agencies, the railroad industry, individual railroads, transit operators, and suppliers.

The Transportation Technology Center's research includes track structural integrity, component testing, life-cycle prediction, and subgrade performance; vehicle dynamics studies, including structural modeling, complete railroad environment input facilities, simulated and real-time track testing, and mechanical studies; and hazardous materials training, encompassing hazardous material spill control, intermodal emergency response, and tank car safety.

Lab Facilities

The center's 52-square-mile site has 48 miles of test track and structured support facilities to accommodate test setup and modification to test configurations. The major research and testing lab (Rail Dynamics Laboratory) houses the Vibration Test Unit, Simuloader, Rail Dynamics Unit, and the Mini-Shaker Unit. The vibration test unit consists of a 320,000 lb. electro-hydraulic shaker unit, simuloader (440,000 lb. shaker unit) and roll dynamics unit (400,000 lb./250 mph/3600 hp roller/dynamometer rig). Data acquisition and data reduction systems vary from simple to very complex, computer-controlled, real-time data collection systems with sufficient throughput for rapid analysis activities. The center's facilities are available to both government and private industry to provide technical assistance in a laboratory or field test environment needed for critical types of railroad and/or other large test article research and testing.

Facility for Accelerated Service Testing (FAST) is designed to replace the railroad practice of putting a limited number of track or equipment components into service and observing their performance for 10 to 20 years. This testing is the equivalent of approximately 10 years of experience on the most heavily used main lines in North America and thus will provide life testing of both track and cars in one-tenth of less of the time it would take in revenue service. Other test facilities include a dynamics laboratory for vibration testing of cars and locomotives and a flame test facility to test thermal insulation coatings of tank cars that carry hazardous materials. One of the tests run at the center was the crash of a locomotive into a standing train and caboose. Other crash tests have simulated impacts of tank cars in the switchyard. A water filled tank car, coupled to a hopper car on one end was struck by another hopper on the other end, simulating an attempt to couple at too high a speed. In addition to freight equipment test, the center is also occupied with rail transit and advanced design systems. The transit test programs include state-of-the-art cars, standard light rail vehicles, energy storage cars and gas turbine electric cars. The Rail Dynamics Laboratory has run test programs on its vertical shaker. The shaker simulates track conditions by subjecting rail cars to vibrations over a wide variety of frequencies and amplitudes.

In addition to testing and publications, the Lab conducts training and consulting, and collaborates with universities on the design and operation of railroads.