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Cooper E80 Loading

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Civil09

Civil/Environmental
Mar 4, 2009
2
Hi,All

I'm trying to determine wheather 8kip/ft (Cars) is based on single stack or double stack. If it is single stack, what additional load is needed to accomodate double stack?

Thank you all.
 
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Your statements and questions are unclear. Please explain in a bit more detail what it is that you're wanting.
 
Thank you Ron for your response.

Typical Cooper E80 consists of 2 engines and cars (8kip/ft, where continers sit on). I wanted to know how 8 kip/ft was established. Is 8kip/ft based on one container or two containers? or Is 8kip/ft just a design load so it doesn't matter whether a car carries one container or two containers?
Thank you.
 
All major railroads design for E-80 loading for railroad mainline. A Cooper E-80 train is two locomotives with an undefined number of cars. The E number refers to axle load. E-80 refers to 80,000 lbs per axle.

The E-80 loading is a conservative historical design established for steam locomotives in 1830. All major railroads use the E-80 design and typically operate double stack.


 
Cooper E80 loading is related to a particular engine type. If you are looking at culvert loading you might want to consider more than the 8k/ft. If you are looking at track bedding, retaining wall design, or even bridge loading, the 8k/ft is reasonable.

I don't know the rhyme or reason for the 8k/ft. If you consider the Cooper E80 configuration, it actually works out to be about 10.3k/ft.

 
The railroads are usually specific in how to apply the E-80 surcharge. Most use a surcharge of 80,000# over the 5' axle spacing and a 8.5' long tie = 1,882 psf strip load with a Boussinesq analysis for a rigid wall. I've seen some railroads round down the surcharge to 1800 psf. AMTRAK also requires a 50% impact factor. Check the specs for the railroad you are dealing with. I don't know where 8 klf comes from. That may be thae average strip load for an entire Cooper E80 engine, but that's not what I've ever been allowed to use.

 
Cooper E-Loading has been used for railroad design since thw 19th century. The American Railway Engineering Association (AREA) has adopted these configuration and offering as standard design and analysis loading schemes since the manual, “AREA 1905” was published. American Railway Engineering Association (1905), Manual for Railway Engineering.

The current rating for bridges recommended by AREA is E80, although it represents a very high loading and none of the current car loadings rate as high as E80.


Information on pages 7-23, 6-12, and 2-3 UNIFIED FACILITIES CRITERIA (UFC) RAILROAD DESIGN AND REHABILITATION may be of interest. Table 2-2 lists suggested design wheel loads for planning purposes.

 
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