Rail Freight Task Force - Final Report (7737 kb) - City of Mitcham

Figure 3.1 - Total Number of Rail Movements throughGoodwood Junction876Trains per Week5432101 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24Hour of Day(Source: RFTF Survey December, 2006)Railway Noise – Contributing Factors3.10 Wheel Squeal - Wheel squeal noise is attributed to the contact between the tapered wheel flangesand the rail head. This occurs mostly on curves but can occur along straight track sections.The ‘problem’ of wheel squeal is caused by the interaction of the wheel/rail interface whenrollingstock traverses the track. It gives rise to a loud high-pitched squeal.The following elements, singularly or in combination, may affect the presence and level of wheelsqueal:• The wagon wheels• The railway track• Those parts of the train which control or are controlled by the movement of wheel over railARTC initially assumed that the extreme curvatures found on the Hills track were the cause of themajority of wheel squeal problems. The high numbers of sharp curves through the Adelaide Hillsare a result of historical engineering limitations and are present in few other parts of the AustralianRail Network.Attempts to address the problem were made using ‘oiler system’ detection equipment. Trialscommenced in 2000 (NTC 2004). Due to lack of effectiveness the trial has now been discontinued.It has been reported that straight sections of rail track produced high pitched squeals and that notall wheels squeal. To better monitor wheel noises a system of electronic surveillance was set up byARTC and acoustic monitoring consultants VIPAC at Heathfield.The device installed at Heathfield is known as "RailSquad". It is a data logger and bar-code readerand consists of several microphone arrays for approach, passing and going directions to identifyelectronic tags on every wagon with other data. If a ‘squealer’ is noted, it is logged and flagged upPage 12