Flange climb derailment of rail vehicles running at low speed occurs on sharp curved and twisted tracks. We studied the flange climbing mechanism to clarify and quantify the factors that cause derailment. Regarding this subject, running tests of a passenger vehicle were carried out subsidized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on a test line of RTRI. Flange climb derailment actually occurred in these tests, in which wheel/rail contact force, the force exerted on wheelsets and dynamic behavior of the vehicle were measured. Moreover, bench tests were performed with roller-rigs to investigate the creep force characteristics. Based on these test results, this paper proposes a method to evaluate the safety against derailment of vehicles running on curves.

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