About fifty per cent of the accidents at passive railway crossings during dawn, dusk and darkness involve motor vehicles running into the side of a train. A possible remedial road safety action for this problem is the installation of retroreflective material to the sides of railway freight wagons that, when illuminated by vehicle headlights, may give an indication of the presence of a train already on the crossing. This study presents lab testing of retroreflective sheetings, and of two years of field trials of eight reflectors on railway quarry wagons to measure the loss of reflectivity over time in worst case railway operating conditions of quarry dust and brake dust. In two years without washing, the reflectors lost 85 to 90 per cent of their initial reflectivity. Washing the reflectors after two years recovered from 4 to 29 per cent of the initial reflectivity. Two Class 1A sheetings may be feasible for installation on railway wagons using a `FIX AND FORGET' policy which could provide a minimum retroreflectivity of 45 cd.lx (super -1)m(super -2) for a period of about 4.4 years without washing. Washing of reflectors might then be considered as a routine part of railroad wagon maintenance. (A)
Abstract