What is Cooper E-80 loading?

Cooper E-80 is the standard AREMA railway live load: two locomotives with 80-kip driving axles plus 40-kip lead and 52-kip tender axles, followed by an 8 kip/ft uniform train load.

Are Cooper E-80 results per rail or per track?

This tool reports total force effects per track (both rails). Divide by two for per-rail or per-girder values.

Cooper E-80 Live Load

AREMA Ch. 15 Preliminary estimate

Maximum railway live-load moment and shear on a simply supported span under the AREMA Cooper E-80 train — the load that governs railroad bridge design.

Results update as you type. These are educational estimates — confirm against the governing code and a licensed engineer before design use.

Method & references

The Cooper E-80 loading is the standard live load for railroad bridge design (AREMA Manual for Railway Engineering, Chapter 15). It represents two locomotives — each with a 40-kip lead axle, four 80-kip driving axles, and four 52-kip tender axles — followed by an 8 kip/ft uniform "train" load:

Axles (kips): 40, 80, 80, 80, 80, 52, 52, 52, 52, 40, 80, 80, 80, 80, 52, 52, 52, 52
Spacings (ft): 8, 5, 5, 5, 9, 5, 6, 5, 8, 8, 5, 5, 5, 9, 5, 6, 5 · then 8 kip/ft trailing

This tool moves the full train across the span in both directions and reports the maximum bending moment and maximum shear/reaction (the moment under a load governs; the shear governs at a support). Values are total per track (both rails) — halve for per-rail or per-girder. Cooper E-RR ratings scale the loads linearly by RR/80.

Impact

AREMA impact (Art. 1.3.5) is the sum of the rocking effect (RE — a vertical couple, each force 20% of the wheel load, down on one rail and up on the other, divided by the girder spacing) and the vertical effect (VE — a percentage of live load that depends on span length and equipment). For rolling equipment without hammer blow (diesel), VE is commonly cited as 40 − 3L²/1600 for L < 80 ft and 16 + 600/(L − 30) for L ≥ 80 ft, but impact provisions vary by AREMA edition and member type. Enter your governing impact percentage in the field above; the hint shows the reference diesel VE as a starting point only.

References: AREMA Manual for Railway Engineering, Chapter 15 (Steel Structures) and its live-load tables. Verify all values against the governing manual.