Effects of Long-Term Inactivity on Railcar Bearings

Failures in railcar wheel bearings can result in catastrophic derailments like the East Palestine, OH incident on February 3, 2023. Many factors affect bearing performance, including long periods of inactivity as bearings sit idle in railyards or sidings. According to the NTSB incident report, the East Palestine train derailment was caused by a bearing that had two previous long periods of inactivity where the bearing sat idle for 565 days and then again for 216 days. Could inactivity contribute to lubricant degradation in which the grease separates and becomes less effective? 

To answer this question, the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) teamed with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), MxV Rail, and CSX Transportation to study bearings pulled from freight cars that have not moved for extended periods (6–36 months). This multi-year project started in 2023 and is ongoing; however, the first round of tests already produced interesting findings–not only about bearing damage, but about the methods needed to detect the damage. This research is in progress with preliminary findings.