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[quote user="GERALD L MCFARLANE JR"]I still say the 800,000 lb crash test is an arbitrary number that the FRA came up with, without having any solid background that it's the minimum needed for survivability. [/quote] The 800,000 lbs buff load requirement is much older than FRA (founded 1966). In a thread about diesel locomotive crashworthiness ( <a>http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/741/t/264463.aspx</a> ) I wrote the following: I found that the earliest requirements were PRR passenger cars with a buff load of 200.000 lbs in 1906 followed by RPO cars with 400,000lbs in 1912. It was later doubled to 800,000 lbs. in 1939 the AAR made the 800,000 lbs a Recommended Practice for passenger cars and a Standard 1949 (S-034: Specifications for the Construction of new Passenger Eqipment Cars). The American philosophy is to allow as little deformation as possible. The European regulations follow the path of the automobile industry using crumple zones. The FRA and the PRIIA certification follow this now but only partly by allowing/requiring CEM elements. "Partly" because they still require the 800.000 lbs buff load. The European rules give requirements for the energy absorption limiting the actuation forces in the CEM element. The buff load is a bit higher than the CEM's actuation forces and depends on type of vehicle. For a passenger coach it is 441,000 lbs. The deceleration is limited to 5g. As I said different philosophies. Regards, Volker
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