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I reckon they drive themselves anyway - the 'driver' only being there to give the public confidence... Do you know how they go round corners by the way - fascinating!
Quote from: Barman on June 26, 2009, 09:41:37 AMI reckon they drive themselves anyway - the 'driver' only being there to give the public confidence... Do you know how they go round corners by the way - fascinating! Slowly with feeling? Now that really is fascinating. It's all to do with flanges, flange lubricants and friction. On slow tight curves the wheel flanges press on the side of the rail and guide the wheels around the curve. This can be noisy and some areas have flange lubricators fitted to ease the friction. If the angle (ie. the truck length compared with the curve radius) is too tight then unfortunately there can be a de-railment. The wheels may be riding on the outside or the inside of the curve depending on the position of the driven wheels and the position along the train length.On fast gentle curves the taper in the wheel tread guides the wheel set along so it remains more or less in the centre of the clearance between the rails. As it moves to either side the closer wheel runs on a slightly larger radius and hence moves ahead a tad swinging the axle back towards the centre. There's a lot of detail design here to make the wheels stable over a wide speed range
Quote from: Miss Creant on June 26, 2009, 11:17:36 AMQuote from: Barman on June 26, 2009, 09:41:37 AMI reckon they drive themselves anyway - the 'driver' only being there to give the public confidence... Do you know how they go round corners by the way - fascinating! Slowly with feeling? Now that really is fascinating. It's all to do with flanges, flange lubricants and friction. On slow tight curves the wheel flanges press on the side of the rail and guide the wheels around the curve. This can be noisy and some areas have flange lubricators fitted to ease the friction. If the angle (ie. the truck length compared with the curve radius) is too tight then unfortunately there can be a de-railment. The wheels may be riding on the outside or the inside of the curve depending on the position of the driven wheels and the position along the train length.On fast gentle curves the taper in the wheel tread guides the wheel set along so it remains more or less in the centre of the clearance between the rails. As it moves to either side the closer wheel runs on a slightly larger radius and hence moves ahead a tad swinging the axle back towards the centre. There's a lot of detail design here to make the wheels stable over a wide speed rangeYes, that's right... For 99% of the network the flanges (snigger) aren't required at all - the wheels self-steer due to their clever geometry...
And on the other 1%
The Deputy Headmistress at my school was known as Flange
I never knew why
Amazing knowledge Miss C.Of course any male who ever had an electric train set could have told you the answer.
I never had a train set
