Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 24, 1993 TAG: 9312290006
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Consolidated Launcher Technology Inc. of Chesapeake this week landed a federal grant to design and build a new type of railroad crossing barrier to keep high-speed trains apart from automobile and truck traffic.
The barrier, an energy-absorbing device, will pop out of the road surface at rail crossings to prevent cars and trucks from moving into the path of high-speed trains. The device is to be used in conjunction with traditional crossing guards with their bells, flashing lights and descending arms.
The Federal Railway Administration's $400,000 grant to Consolidated Launcher is the first under the government agency's high-speed ground transportation initiative.
The company has a patented energy-absorbing system, which adapts technology used by the Navy on surface ships and submarines. B.F. Goodrich Aerospace, a unit of B.F. Goodrich Co., is patent co-holder on the device.
When trains are not running over a grade crossing, the device remains hidden in an underground vault covered by a roadbed plate.
When a train approaches, the barrier deploys. In 20 seconds it rises to six feet above the roadway and grows from 68 inches to 15 feet in thickness. Both lanes of traffic on each side of a rail crossing would be equipped with the barriers.
The front of the barrier is covered by a 3-inch ``batterboard'' of natural rubber between layers of polyethlene, made by Goodrich at a North Carolina plant.
In back of the batterboard is a metal structure of 48 springs and four large steel beams. The structure absorbs a vehicle's impact by gradually decreasing its force.
Roughly 6,000 collisions occur between trains and motor vehicles each year. In about 30 percent of those collisions, the car or truck runs into the train.
Dan Lynch, chief executive officer of Consolidated Launcher, said the company is doing the design work on the barrier on a computer and will test it with a computer simulation before installing a prototype on a CSX rail line near Fredericksburg in early 1995.
Norfolk Southern Corp.'s railway is not involved in the project, but Lynch said the barriers could have applications for especially dangerous crossings where trains run at conventional speeds as well as for high-speed rails. Highway vehicles pose more of a threat to high-speed trains because of the light weight of the trains.
The Federal Railway Administration requires that the barrier be able to stop a 4,500-pound vehicle traveling at 45 mph with minimum damage or injury. The barriers also should be able to stop tractor-trailer rigs of 90,000 pounds but would not provide the same degree of protection from damage and injury.
Consolidated Launcher has 23 employees. The grant signing on Nov. 16 in Washington was ``an exciting thing for a bunch of small folks like us,'' Lynch said.
\ The Journal of Commerce contributed to this story.
by CNB