Roadbed bearing capacity and deformations in a conventional and an improved turnout system

Research is being performed on improving turnout systems; this is to increase the speed of trains on existing rail systems. In this note, a comparison between conventional and improved turnout systems is performed in terms of impact ratios estimated from dynamic wheel/load tests performed in the field. The track performance, roadbed bearing capacity, and deformations of conventional and improved turnout systems are examined. Numerical results show that the dynamic wheel load, roadbed stress and roadbed deformations for the improved turnout system are substantially smaller than those for the conventional turnout system.