Right. The initial British Rail experiments with tilt trains were some of
the worst, and the whole Advanced Passenger Train (APT) program was brought to
an end by Margaret Thatcher:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_Train
I've looked at a number of tilt train designs, and the one I liked the
best years ago was from Australia. Many tilt trains use a pivot with vertical
hydraulic lifters to either side, but the Australians used a curved bolster
with horizontal hydraulic actuators to slide it along. This is a much safer
design as the carriage will self-centre if and when there is a hydraulic
failure. This design approach may be in wider use by now.
Dedicated high-speed trackage such as in France, Japan, and China is
perhaps the ideal option for speeds of 300 KPH, but it is horribly expensive.
Instead, upgraded trackage combined with tilting is an economical compromise.
One thing needed is the elimination of grade crossings and traffic
overpasses. There was a terrific crash in Germany years ago where an ICE400 at
full throttle hit a car that had fallen on the tracks from a bridge. Britain
has had a few such mishaps. The French LGV and the Chinese Harmony Express
trackages were designed to eliminate this problem.
>
>On 16-12-31 8:49 AM, Chris Trask wrote:
>> Initially, I'm impressed with this. They've added tilting so that
>>the speed can be increased without building dedicated high-speed track
>>corridors such as the French LGV, though the present trackage will need
>>to up upgraded to handle the higher side loading as was done in France
>>for the non-LGV trackage.
>
> From 1968 - the UAC TurboTrain - "...one of the first tilting trains to
>enter service":
>
><https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAC_TurboTrain>
>
Chris
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
- Hunter S. Thompson
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