Assessment of Reliability, Availability and Maintainability of Rail Gauge Change Systems

The paper provides a comparative assessment of the reliability of two rail gauge change systems: wagon bogie exchange and SUW 2000 self-adjusted wheel sets. In the applied method of assessment, reliability is treated as a comprehensive feature comprising such system characteristics as reliability itself together with availability and maintainability. The calculations of selected reliability ratios, based on operation data, demonstrated that the SUW 2000 system may be an alternative method for overcoming the barrier of different track gauges compared to the current wagon bogie exchange.