Locomotive planning has been a popular application of classical optimization models for decades, but with very few success stories. There are a host of complex rules governing how locomotives should be used. In addition, it is necessary to simultaneously manage locomotive inventories by balancing the need for holding power against the need for power at other yards. At the same time, we have to ...

This paper discusses the safety challenges faced by railroads in the United States. It discusses and evaluates public policy dealing with trespassing, grade crossing collisions, occupational injuries and operational accidents. The primary conclusion is that the government oversight body, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), should take on the role of teacher and risk analyst rather than t...

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between coming of railroads, expansion primary education, and introduction national school curricula. Using fine-grained data on local education outcomes in Sweden nineteenth century, tests idea that development railroad network enabled inspectors to monitor remote schools more effectively. In localities which could travel by rail, a larger share ch...

There are situations where a system in mind needs to be tested before it is built. Using modeling and simulation users can apply realistic interactions with their synthetic environments representing real world. In this study, the synthetic environment is a hardware railroad model representing a miniature of the actual size railroad. Simulation software, used to test the railroad system, consist...