That’s part of it. Ties, ballast, curves. The list goes on. MC can speak with great authority on this part of the topic. I’m working on what I’ve read.
As the FRA Speed Grading for tracks increase in speed. The maintenance requirement also increase and those maintenance requirements do not come free.
I am not an MofW type and don’t know the requirement for each grade of track, however suffice to say…the cross level, guage, tie condition and rail integrety must be significantly more stringent for Passenger Trains operating in excess of 79 MPH than is required for mine lines whose traffic is operated at 30 MPH. Maintaing track to the higher level requies more frequent inspections and those inspections must address more parameters of operation and also more frequent rail and tie replacements as well as more frequent surfacing operations to keep the line at the required levels to continue operations at 79+ MPH with an acceptable ride qulity.
It has not been mentioned in the postings but wouldn’t locomotive gearing have an effect on train speed. Most CN locos are listed as 65 mph as top speed except for the GEs which have 73 mph gearing, but are restricted to 65 mph. I presume that some kind of overrun protection would kick in if these speeds were exceeded.
Leaving out signaling for a moment as an FRA requirement for allowing higher speeds, by definition is track deemed low speed necessarily less smooth riding than track deemed high speed?
Did you mean “seminal cases” (seminal = first stage) or “seminole cases” (Seminole= Native American tribe)?
Dave H.
Yes, you are quite right; thank you.
My excitement over all three Florida college football teams losing this week must have caused me to make a Freudian slip.
Gabe