For the conventional narrow-gauge railways in Japan, main noise source is wheel/rail noise. In order to reduce railway noise, it would be necessary to make a better understanding of wheel/rail noise. The purpose of this paper is to make clear vibration behaviors in rail-track systems. The rail-track system is modelled as an infinite beam periodically supported by spring/mass/spring system. The model is tuned through field tests and validated in terms of vertical rail accelerance and decay rate. Using the model, various physical phenomena regarding rail vibration have been shown. Finally, parametric study on railpad stiffness was performed, and the relationship between the railpad stiffness and rail vibration behavior was pointed out.

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