Patent ID: 7455242

Claim:
A railway track system, comprising: a longitudinally extending rail structure with a rail head, said rail head including a laterally disposed running surface; a wheel structure having a bearing surface and a wheel tread with a rolling surface configured for rolling engagement with the rail head running surface, said running surface and said rolling surface establishing a contact surface when the wheel structure contacts the running surface of the rail, said contact surface having distinct dimensions selected to fit within a range that is determined based on the relationship between width of the contact surface taken across longitudinal extension of the rail structure and an effective length of the contact surface, said range being determined as: 2 b/Lr= .45 to .55 where 2 b is the width of the contact surface taken across longitudinal extension of the rail structure and Lr is the effective length of the contact surface; and said rolling surface has a distinct radial dimension and said contact surface has a distinct effective length determined according to: Lr=4 RΦ where Lr is the effective length of the contact surface, R is the radius of the convex contact portion of the wheel, and Φ is the angle of vertical misalignment from the rail's vertical axis determined as an angle between tangent lines applied to the wheel and rail at a point of contact.