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Foster-Miller Inc. recently obtained $1.5 million in federal funding to continue researching locomotive safety under the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Advanced Freight Locomotive program.

During the past few years, Foster-Miller has been working with the administration to study locomotive equipment designed to improve safety, such as sensor technologies. The research firm and FRA are finalizing designs and developing prototypes for an automatic collision notification system, locomotive cab air bags, energy absorbing seats and improved egress products, such as roof hatches, removable windshields and break-away doors.

Since 1995, Foster-Miller has worked with the FRA to improve locomotive crashworthiness by analyzing computerized railroad collision simulations and recommending modifications to locomotive equipment designs.

In 2000, Foster-Miller opened a facility in Fitchburg, Mass., designed to test 40,000-pound locomotives. In 2003, the FRA awarded the company a two-year, $9 million contract to study locomotive crashworthiness and fuel-tank safety.