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This contribution presents a hybrid analytical-numerical analysis of the thermomechanicalfatigue behavior of heavy duty railway wheels. The wheels were repeatedlyfrictionally disk-braked at random sequences of time instants. As the loading was rathersevere, the stresses during braking and subsequent cooling reached the plastic limits incompression and tension, respectively. Hence, the initiation and propagation of fatiguecracks was observed. This paper addresses the behavior of these cracks under severeservice conditions including residual stresses, and discusses the conditions for fatiguecrack extension as well as the possibility to arrest these cracks. Finally safety issuesand safe life time diagrams are presented.