The Behaviour of the Bridges with the MW Steering Bar

The paper deals with the extensive load tests, made on the first Czech railway bridge with the steering bar Meyer-Wunstorf. The two-track railway arch bridge on the Tábor - Sudoměřice track crosses the D3 highway with the span of 100 m. The load tests were focused on the horizontal brake and acceleration forces with the heavy train (totally 1056 t) and four locomotives of weight 318,6 t. During the test, a number of values were measured, such as stresses in the rail and MW system, movements of the MW and the bridge, temperature. The behaviour of the steering bar and the bridge - track interaction is described and compared with the design and theoretical assumptions. The paper also gives the recommendations for the practical design and analysis of the MW system.