Coursework:

CE 4405 International Railroad Engineering

International Railroad Engineering is a versatile railroad course taught as part of the Summer in Finland Program. It is developed for all engineering (and non-engineering) disciplines and approaches the railway education from practical point of view. Interactive classroom lectures and regular assignments are complemented by several field visits that allow participants to observe how the material presented during the lectures is applied in the real world situations. Teaching methods, grading policies and other detailed course information is presented in Course Syllabus (pdf)

Topics Covered:

Coursework

• Basic elements and roles of rail transportation
• Introduction to American railroad industry and history
• Railroad organizations and economics
• Railroad safety
• Track - train dynamics
• Introduction to passenger rail and urban rail transit
• Railroad track: Location, design, construction and maintenance
• Railroad Operations: Motive power, terminal operations, signals, and communications

Field visits are one of the highlights for the program. Participants get to experience multiple aspects of the rail industry by observing the industry activities in several industry facilities in the U.S. and Finland. Some of the common field visits include:

Green Bay:

National Railroad Museum

Chicago:

• CSX  Intermodal (photos, video)
• Belt Railway Company of Chicago (photos, video)
• Riding CTA Metro Rail (photos, video)
• Railroad consulting firm

Finland:

• Riding Pendolino at 125 MPH (photos, video)
• Riding commuter rail and trollies in Helsinki (photos, video)
• Railroad reconstruction site and Track Relaying Machine (photos, video)
• Riding EMMA - Track geometry car (photos, video)

View General Index of Slide Show & additional Video Clips of technical visits in Chicago and Finland