A message from the President of RSI, Gary P. Wolf
Thank you for taking the time to look at our new web site. This is about the third iteration of our site as we are constantly looking for ways to improve it. We think this version, with direct links to many of our product pages, is our best effort yet.
20 Years Old and Still Growing!
This past year Rail Sciences passed a significant milepost as we celebrated our 20th anniversary of service to the rail industry. When I founded Rail Sciences back in 1987 I had no idea that we would grow as large as we have, and that we would attract as many diverse clients as we have over the past 20 years. We have now served over 300 clients on just about every continent. When I reflect on the industry, it’s amazing to think that in 1987 doublestack cars were just being developed, 286K railcars were only in the conceptual stage with many unanswered questions, AC locomotives had not yet debuted, ABDW was the state of the art in air braking, positive train separation (PTS) was still literally “pie in the sky”, and RCL was something just gaining a foothold in Canada. Wow! The past 20 years have ushered in a new era of technical advancements, and I am proud to say that Rail Sciences has played a key role in evaluation, testing, and implementation of nearly every new technology we have in today’s railroad environment.
Helping to Implement Technical Innovation
In the past 20 years Rail Sciences performed the first commercial test of ECP brakes on the BN Beardstown Coal Train, performed thousands of train dynamic simulations to verify the performance improvements for Locotrol/DPU for the western railroads, performed evaluations and written braking algorithms for Positive Train Control Systems, and played a key role in the deployment of RCL technology across north America. Along the way we have had to develop, perfect, and validate a number of simulation tools and processes in order to answer these technically challenging questions.
Expanding Our Horizons
Since 2000 Rail Sciences has grown dramatically in size and stature. Beginning in 2001, we established a new office in Omaha,Nebraska with a world class testing and metallurgical analysis laboratory. With the addition of key engineering personnel, we now have the capability to analyze any type of materials failure problem in the rail industry, from wheels, to bearings, to rail, to locomotive components. In 2002 we became the first North American engineering firm to license the VAMPIRE vehicle dynamics model, and since, have used VAMPIRE to solve and analyze hundreds of vehicle/track interaction problems. In 2005 we launched TransportationU.com, our internet based training site. To date we have signed up over 5000 students for a variety of technical training courses. In 2004 we signed an agreement to market and support a Beena Vision’s family of laser based wheel and rail measurement tools, and other wayside detection technologies. And last year, we jointly developed a new generation of locomotive training simulators with PI Engineering.
None of this would be possible without you, our clients and customers. We thank you for your support over the past 20 years, and look forward to serving you in the future.
