Reliability analysis of high-utilization railway cars
by D.E. Bray, M.D. Stubbings
International Journal of Vehicle Design (IJVD), Vol. 1, No. 1, 1979

Abstract: Mathematical models for failures in high-utilization railway cars manufactured in 1965 and 1966 have shown that the failure rate and reliability can be adequately described using a Weibull distribution. The reliability of Trailer Train high-utilization cars after ten years of operation exceeds 0.99. In other words, after ten years service, 990 of every 1000 cars purchased would be operating without failure. In the first five years, the reliability is only slightly decreased from one: fewer than two cars per thousand will have failed after only five years of operation. It has been clearly demonstrated in this study that failures can be reduced through proper inspection and maintenance. If a standard reliability or car failure rate were specified by federal standards, it would be a simple matter to establish a matching inspection interval. Unfortunately, these do not exist in the Federal Car Safety Standards.

Online publication date: Sun, 25-May-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Vehicle Design (IJVD):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com