1. Ride Quality
Assessment

2. Who I am
Rick Bellew, Vice President of Corporate Development
Worked for BNSF Railway for 10 years, starting as a track laborer, worked my
way through multiple positions ending with Roadmaster on three different
territories throughout the country.
FRA Track Safety Inspector in the State of New Mexico.
Left the FRA to rejoin the private sector with Herzog and TransitAmerica
Services
◦ Contract Operator for New Mexico Rail Runner Express
◦ Contract Operator for Caltrain
Been involved with Track Maintenance, Repair, Inspection, Mechanical
Equipment, Operations, Agencies, and Construction all of my career. Spent
significant amount of time with the State of Good Repair Program for
Caltrain (CTAMS), Continuous Improvement projects for Herzog and
TransitAmerica Services to include product procurement approvals,
management development programs, and multiple CFR Plans.

3. Who we are?
Headquartered in Ogden, Utah
Founded in 1975, incorporated in 1993
Specialize in Tie Collection, Rehabilitation, and Sales
◦ Pick up the ties with grapple trucks, SPS or MPM machines.
◦ Sort, grade, process, and rehab railroad ties.
Plants in Clinton, IA, Grand Island, NE, and Tucson, AZ.
Provide Track Maintenance, Repair, Inspection, Consulting, Grapple
Trucks, Vacuum trucks, Vegetation Cleanup, Homeless Encampment
Cleanup, Part 213.7 Training.

4. Are you all familiar with Ride
Quality?
Correlation of a vehicles vibration to the vehicle/track interaction (V/TI)
forces for detecting issues on the track or vehicle.
Traditional geometry inspections are performed infrequently due to
cost. Ride quality data can be gathered at a significantly lower cost
point, much more frequently and greater areas can be covered.
Meant to augment traditional track inspection technologies with day-to-
day ride quality data which provides more up to date situational
awareness of their track and their vehicles and may improve overall
operational safety.

5. Ride Quality
The capability of the railroad vehicle suspension to maintain the motion within the range of human comfort and
or within the range necessary to ensure that there is no damage to the cargo it carries.
Depends on
◦ Displacement, Acceleration, rate of change of acceleration and other factors like noise, dust, humidity, and temperature.
Sperlings Ride Index – Older Version
◦ Used by Indian Railways
◦ Ride Comfort – Vehicle being assessed according to the effect of the mechanical vibrations on the human body.
◦ Ride Quality – Vehicle itself is being assessed
A is the peak acceleration in cm/s2, f is the frequency in Hz and F the frequency dependent weighting factors that
expresses human vibration sensitivity. F is different for vertical and horizontal vibration components.
ISO
◦ International Standards Organization
◦ Influence of vibration on the human body is expressed by the fatigue time.
◦ Three Levels of fatigue Time
◦ Decreased Proficiency,
◦ Exposure Limits,
◦ Reduced Comfort Boundary

6. Sperling Ride Evaluation Scales

7. Comfort Guidelines – ISO 2631
Human reaction to vibration
◦ Function of amplitude and frequency of acceleration applied to the body.
◦ The direction (Horizontal and Vertical) and character of the motion (Linear or
rotation).
Frequency range of 1-80 Hz as set by ISO
Limits cover human sensitivity to vertical and lateral vibration to
periodic vibration exposure time ranging from 1 minute to 24 hours.
Uses 1/3 octave bands at 10 Hz

8. What is rMetrix
Fra inspectors are using the system in each region. ( I used an early
version).
Ride Quality System
◦ Runs off laptop
◦ Uses Accelerometer – Tri-axial accelerometer
◦ MEMS Accelerometer – Analog device with an iSensor. Measures acceleration, tilt, shock, and
vibration in performance drive applications.
◦ Uses a Free Scale Chip inside which allows communication with laptop.
◦ USB Micro Controller
◦ Temperature Compensation
◦ Calibrated annually
◦ GPS location provided by device and GIS mapping data provided by the FRA.

9. rMetrix
Real time, geo-spatially correlated ride quality data
Software
◦ Compares the longitudinal, lateral, and vertical acceleration signal strength
against a pre-defined safety threshold to detect abnormal conditions
(exceptions) – 49 CFR Part 213.333.
Excessive Vertical Acceleration
◦ Profile or cross level geometry deviations
Excessive Lateral Acceleration
◦ Alinement or gage deviations
Abnormal vibration data could point to problems with worn wheels or
the primary or secondary suspension components such as springs or
dampers.

10. Values
49 CFR Part 213.333
◦ Carbody Lateral Peak to Peak – Highest point of deviation to lowest point
within 1000 mls, or 1 second.
◦ .500 g force
◦ Carbody Vertical Peak to Peak – Highest point of deviation to lowest point
within 1000 mls, or 1 second.
◦ .600 g force
If the inspection returns no results, we can tighten the thresholds. If the
inspection returns more than anticipated, we can loosen the thresholds.

11. Reports
•Exception List Summary
•Exception List Detailed
•CSV Export Report
•Steady State Acceleration Report
•Window Limits Report
•Ride Comfort Report (ISO 2631)
•Ride Health Report (ISO 2631)
•Sperling Ride Index

12. Why do this?
•Safety, ride comfort and economy are the major factors behind any
successful transportation business.
•Help to maintain and plan for State of Good Repair Funds.
•Derailment Prevention – Added inspection measure which compliments
internal rail flaw, geometry, and visual inspection.

13. Additional Services
Third-Party compliance internal audit of your contracted maintenance of way contractor.
◦ This service includes:
◦ A review of at least one-months track inspection records.
◦ Rail flaw defect repair review. 213.113
◦ Rail joint inspection and welding compliance. 213.121
◦ Continuous welded rail plan contents and field compliance. 213.119
◦ Track Inspection compliance. 213.233
◦ Switch inspection compliance. 213.235
◦ Inspection of rail (Internal) compliance. 213.237
◦ Designation of inspectors compliance. 213.7 a, b, c and d
◦ On-Track Safety compliance. 214
◦ Roadway Maintenance Machine Compliance 214
NRM provided inspector to conduct a full Part 213 inspection of the entire track structure. (An internal inspection BEFORE the FRA inspection)
◦ This could take a week, or four weeks depending on multiple variables which should be discussed prior to scheduling the inspection.
State of Good Repair Assessment
◦ NRM can provide an inspector who will conduct a full or sample SOGR assessment. SOGR assessments are ideal when an agency wants to keep track of the
condition of the track structure prior to, during, and after the term of a contract has ended or is ending in the near future. This allows the agency to make a
determination as to the condition of the track before, and after the term of the contract. NRM can also make recommendations after the inspection in order
to help make decisions to extend the life of the physical plant. Ratings are typically between 1 and 5, and color coded. A baseline inspection should be
performed, and periodic inspections to assess if the condition has improved, or degraded.
Capital Tie Maintenance Program
◦ NRM utilizes state of the art systems which allow our inspectors to grade each and every railroad tie between MP locations. The condition is logged into a
ruggedized palm top pilot. The inspection data is uploaded into a software program provided by Zeta-Tech. From this software system, NRM is able to make
a recommendation on tie replacement using a number of variables such as:
◦ Replace every 2, 3, 4, 5 tie clusters
◦ Build a capital tie replacement program to bring class up to a higher class for speed increases.
◦ Build a capital tie replacement program for minor maintenance.

14. What can we do for you?
Richard Bellew
VP Corporate Development
Nevada Railroad Materials Inc.
www.nevadarail.com
rbellew@nevadarail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbellew
917 Country Hills Drive #3
South Ogden, UT. 84403
801-391-1201