TRUCK DESIGN OPTIMIZATION PROJECT--ASSESSMENT OF TRUCK DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

As part of the activities of the Federal Railroad Administration sponsored Phase II of the Truck Design Optimization Project (TDOP) in developing economic-based performance and testing specifications, a sufficient number of commercially available special purpose trucks (type II trucks) were selected for testing. The primary purpose of this paper is to present the procedure used and the results of the selection of type II trucks. In addition, the methodology for truck design evaluation and other on-going tasks of TDOP is also briefly discussed in view of their relationship to the development of performance and testing specifications for freight car trucks.