The article deals with detection of reduced stress in a braked railway wheel, based on thermal transient analysis on virtual models, which influence the characteristics of the railway wheels. Structural analysis was performed by means of the ANSYS Multiphysics program system package. Thermal transient analysis deals with detection of temperature fields which are a result of braking by brake block. The applied heat flux represents the heat generated by friction of brake block. It is applied to a quarter model of the wheel to speed up the calculation. This analysis simulates two braking processes with subsequent cooling. Distribution of the equivalent stress was detected in the railway wheel cross section, at selected points. The input parameters were taken from the thermal transient analysis. These equivalent stresses result from thermal load.