a technical question

[Anonymous]

hi there

I'm new here. I'm from Croatia.

Recently our national railroad company bought new trains from Bombardier transportations. What makes them different from any previous trains in this country is the fact that they can roll left or right, this is specially handy in curves.
We have a name for these trains, something like bending trains, but I have no idea how it is called in english

Now my question is, how is such a mechanism called in english? And do all modern passanger trains have it?

[chad thomas]

Welcome to the forum electro-ortcele (you'll have to explain that handle [;)])

As far as I know we don't have anything like that in our passenger fleet. The only equiptment we have that can move side to side would be a few schenable cars used for moving very large loads. Some are capable of moving to avoid lineside obstacles while in transit. Of course they are moved at a walking pace or less while doing this and not much faster otherwise.

[Anonymous]

They don't move side to side (as in move left-right horisontally) they bend to one side or another, you know like when a plane rolls. The angle is considerable, I's say up to 20 degree on each side. The production year was 2004.
I looked on the Bombardier site, but I didn't know what to look for because I don't know how do you call such a mechanism.

anyway, as for my name it's electro and electro spelled backwards :)

[nanaimo73]

The Acela trains swing like that (but not 20%) and so do the "Talgos" in Washington State.

[Anonymous]

Oh, finally found it, it's called a "regioswinger", a tilting train, model VT612

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

The Acela trains swing like that (but not 20%) and so do the "Talgos" in Washington State.

I'm just making a guess, I'll check the exact angle if I can find it


anyway, as far as I know Acela trains were also manufactured by Bombardier, right?

[nanaimo73]

www.trainweb.org/tgvpages/acela.html

www.alpharail.net/corp/Talgo/CORPTalgo2.htm

[samfp1943]

Ithink that the effect that you refer to is a pendulum effect, where by the center of gravity is maintained while in motion around a curve..The Talgo trains mentioned use this principle with success, as mentioned.. Apparently the propblems with this in the Norteast Corridor was the extreme movement outward from center as the trains maintained very high sppeds in curves..the issue was possibly one of clearances between fixed trackside hardware and passing clearances on ajacent tracks..Apparently, this pendulum effect is a norm in Europe for high speed equipment, and at one point in the past I think I remember "TRAINS" mentioned one demonstrator trainset that was billed as the "Pendoliner"{sic].

[chad thomas]

Sorry, I misunderstood. Yes, like nanimo said the Acela trains "tilt". But I read a while back that there was a possibility of a collision if the tilt mechanism failed on a train on the inside track while passing a train on the outside track that was tilting. Therefore the tilt feature was not being used. I don't know if that's true or not.

[nanaimo73]

The Acela cars turned out to be about 4" wider than they were supposed to be and so are not allowed to operate at full tilt.

[Anonymous]

thank you all

This one here is not that fast. It drives about 100mph on open. So I guess it wouldn't have problems with speed

[Anonymous]

anyway, here is the angle it can tilt

I'm not really good at judging angles, this looks like 20 degree to me when you compare the ground to the "bumber" of the locomotive

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/hr/diesel/dmu/7123/HZ_7123-006_BW_ZG_ZC.jpg

[jchnhtfd]

Chad and Nanaimo -- the Acelas do tilt, and do it so smoothly that the folks riding don't even notice it. They are, however, a bit wider (4 inches sounds right) than originally planned. This isn't a problem on some of the NEC, and the Acela can operate at full speed (150 mph/250 km/h) north of New Haven. However, south of New Haven the track centrelines are closer (that section was built over 100 years ago!) and they aren't allowed to use the full tilt -- and hence are not allowed as high a speed.

It isn't strictly a pendulum effect, in that the tilting is active, rather passive, but a pendulum illustrates the principle well.

Edit:
I might add that the tilting increases passenger comfort, but does not affect the theoretical safe speeds of the train -- that's determined, as it always has been, by the curvature and superelevation of the track, and the height of the centre of gravity of the cars.

[chad thomas]

Jchnhtfd,
Are they only restricted north of New Haven? And what is the max tilt?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by electro-ortcele



Oh, finally found it, it's called a

"regioswinger",

a tilting train, model VT612

Can you really say that in this forum? [?] [:0] [B)] [8]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

QUOTE: Originally posted by electro-ortcele



Oh, finally found it, it's called a

"regioswinger",

a tilting train, model VT612

Can you really say that in this forum? [?] [:0] [B)] [8]

I'm sure it is a joke, but I just don't get it, sorry I'm dumb, could you elaborate?

[mudchicken]

Jamie has it...Within the industry, they are referred to as "pendulum" cars.....there also is a qualifier at AAR/TTC where they test the trains (Pueblo Colorado F.A.S.T. facility) having to do with the active/passive tecnology that tilts the car. Can't remember what those are off the top of the hat after 14 hours in the field today. It may come back to me later.