Steering a train is something we have left to rails and flanges for years, but can electronics do better?
First, prepare yourself for a shock. Some RSSB research cash has been used for some real hardware, I think this is the second time ever, and we have barely had time to get over the multi-shot sander. This cash has gone to SET Ltd to produce independent steering rail wheels, fitted to a Vivarail ‘D’ stock battery vehicle and running up and down the Ecclesbourne Valley.
ENTRY LEVEL WHEEL-RAIL INTERFACE
Before write something more impenetrable than one of Captain Deltic’s signalling articles, let’s brush up on the basics. Looking at the standard arrangement since railways began of a wheel fixed to each end of an axle, when going around a curve something has to slip, and that brings stress and wear. Just like a runner on the outside lane has to run further around a bend than one on the inside, the wheel on the outside of the curve has to go further than the one on the inside. One of the clever things we take for granted is how railway wheels cope with this, which is the wheel tread profile. Being basically a cone shape, this allows the wheel to move sideways so one wheel can run on the smaller diamete…
