OVER-IMBALANCED WHEEL LOAD MEASURING SYSTEM IN MUSASHINO YARD

Since the Tsurumi Accident in 1963 imbalanced wheel load has been counted as one of the causes of interactional derailment, hence main yards are presently equipped with the devices for measuring of over- imbalanced wheel load of cars. The device aims at detecting over-load and one-sided weight of a freight car by measuring the wheel weight per car of a running train which arrives at a yard. By the conventional device, fitted with load-cells under the short rail, the passing speed of a car is limited within 25 km/h. In order to improve the measuring speed, a method for measuring of shearing strain on the rail due to wheels by bonding a rectangular strain gauge to the rail web was applied to the over-imbalanced load measuring system. This method, developed by R.T.R.I., is for measuring of shearing strain on the rail with little influence of adjacent wheels. The device is to be installed in Musashino Yard in anticipation of improving the precision of measurement of trains passing at a speed of 45 km/h by adopting multi-point (5-point) measurement system with proper gauge intervals. This report describes the construction and the test results of the subject device.