Common Train Air/Rolling Resistance Values

[Tmalott]

Hi all,

I am working on a project relating the spring constant of a spring buffer and velocity of trains of different masses on an incline. I need to find a rate for how the train velocity at the point of contact increases/decreases as the mass values increases (this is the change in velocity over mass over several scenarios--not a time rate for one train in one situation). To find that rate, I've been looking for common values for air resistance or rolling resistance for a train. I'm having trouble finding these through Google--does anyone know of a good,resource for finding this kind of info?

Thanks!

[Cake of Doom]

Best I can give you is: check your local codes. Your OP is quite sparse with regards to information; is this train freight, engineering or passenger carrying? Does it involve fully loaded, partial loading or empty states? Trains have a maximum incline they can travel without additional assistance so thats something else to check out. There are also track/rail design handbooks out there if you're willing to part with some $$$$.

[Tmalott]

Thanks for the tips, Cake of Doom. My project is pretty simplistic--I just need some values (it doesn't matter whether they are for freight or passenger to me). Would those codes just be available from the department of transportation, I guess?

[Cake of Doom]

That would be a good first port of call. If they can't supply the information they should be able to point you in the right direction.

[Cake of Doom]

If they can't help, contact the/a carriage manufacturer. They'll have the wind tunnel results for air resistance and probably the rolling resistance values too.