An integral equation method is developed for Timoshenko beams, within the framework of application to the wheel/rail dynamic interaction problems. The integral equation is derived using a fundamental solution for static deflection. Although the domain integration arises associated with the inertia, owing to the simplicity of the static kernel, the evaluation of slope deflection, shearing force and bending moment can be achieved readily. Furthermore the employment of a fundamental solution for a distributed load is attempted to suppress the unwonted impulsive wheel load which is induced by the passage of wheel over nodes. Through numerical experiments, the performance of the developed method is examined, and it is found that the method leads to good accuracy for very coarse discretization.