Tilting train
Due to lengthy political delays, the APT did not begin service testing until 1979, entering limited scheduled service in December 1981, the media describing the initial revenue run as both fifteen years late, and the queasy rider; the sets only briefly entering full revenue operation in 1985, before being withdrawn and the associated technologies sold to Alstom / Fiat Ferroviaria.
[2][3] By this time, the Canadian LRC design had become the first active tilting train to enter full commercial service, starting with Via Rail in 1981.
[10] Italy's Trenitalia and the Japan National Railways have used tilting technology to speed express trains on conventional tracks through mountainous terrain.
[16] Tilting trains operating at 200 km/h (124 mph) or more on upgraded track include the Acela in the US,[17] the X 2000 in Sweden,[18] the Pendolinos and Super Voyagers in the United Kingdom,[19][20] and the ICE TD in Germany (the latter two being diesel powered).
The first experimental tilting train concept was the pendulum-suspension "chair" cars designed by the Pacific Railway Equipment Company.
Mounted on high springs, the car tilted inwards on curves to counterbalance the cant deficiency with the induced centrifugal force.
[citation needed] In the early 1950s, the Spanish National Railway, Renfe, experimented with passenger cars that combined the Talgo bogie with a new passive tilting system.
Because the cars were connected at this high point, they could swing to either side around the bearing axis, and this caused them to naturally pendulum outward on curves.
[citation needed] The first tilting train to enter into regular service in North America was the UAC TurboTrain, used by Canadian National in 1968.
[citation needed] In Italy, the studies for a tilting train started in the mid 1960s and the concept was patented in 1967 by two engineers of Fiat railway materials, Franco di Maio and Luigi Santanera.
One was put into public service on 2 July 1976 on the Rome-Ancona (later extended to Rimini) line, operated by Italian State Railways.
The pistons actuating the tilting action were placed in the bogie instead of on the carbody sides: this permitted the reorganisation of the vestibules and passenger compartment areas, improving comfort.
[19] It runs on the West Coast Main Line (London Euston to Glasgow Central, Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly).
Due to the slow and twisty nature of its conventional-speed, narrow gauge network, tilting trains were introduced as a way to speed up services on its congested main lines.
The interurban Odakyu Electric Railway began Japan's first experiments in tilting technology in the 1960s by fitting pneumatic bogies to their electric railcars,[37] while the Japanese National Railways pioneered their form of passive-tilt technology on their experimental 591 series EMU with commercial express services on mountain lines in mind.
[citation needed] This generation of designs has seen some popularity overseas - the 8000 series serves as the basis of the Electric Tilt Train built for Queensland Rail's Cape Gauge network.
[40] Later developments in pneumatic active suspension - based on the DB Class 403 (1973) built decades earlier - created a generation of trains with more limited tilt (around 2°) but are more economical to build and easier to maintain.
The simplicity of this technology made it possible for smaller private operators to introduce tilting trains, such as the Odakyu 50000 series VSE, a luxurious sightseeing express train with active suspension introduced not to increase speeds but to enhance ride comfort; and even cheap enough to be applied to commuter stock, such as JR Hokkaido's KiHa 201 series, which improved speeds and frequencies on Sapporo's partly non-electrified suburban railway system.
More modern and more numerous examples of active suspension and pneumatic tilting trains, include the 'limited express' EMUs E353 series for JR East.
The tests continued with the prototypes of the following Class 614 units, but due to the again unsatisfying results the serial types were delivered without tilting system.
[citation needed] Another early train with tilting technology was Deutsche Bundesbahn's Class 403 (today this number is used by ICE 3) high speed EMU.
[43] Shortly after the train had gone into service, the tilting technology was disabled as many passengers experienced motion sickness because the pivotal point was too low.
After entering service in 1996, this 50-unit class experienced problems both with the newly developed tilting system as well as chassis and axles, and was judged unsuccessful.
Today Class 612 is back to tilting operation and forms the backbone of DB's fast regional service on non-electrified lines.
[citation needed] In 1966, a consortium of Canadian industrial firms began considering a conventionally-powered competitor to the TurboTrain, eventually emerging as the LRC (Light, Rapid, Comfortable) in the early 1970s.
The work included experimentation with aluminium bodies, turbines, suspension and bogies, in cab signalling, automatic train protection, and active tilt.
Much of the technology developed for the power cars was subsequently used in the InterCity 225 Class 91 locomotives and Mark 4 carriages which were designed to be retrofitted with tilting equipment, which run on the East Coast Main Line route from London to Leeds and Edinburgh.
Forty-four diesel-electric powered Class 221 Super Voyagers were ordered by Virgin CrossCountry to operate in tilt mode on the West Coast Main Line and between Oxford and Banbury.
After the fleet was split between Arriva CrossCountry and Virgin Trains West Coast in 2007, the former disabled and later removed the tilting equipment from its Class 221s.
Many of the problems with motion sickness are related to the fact that traditional servo systems respond inappropriately to the changes in trajectory forces, and even small errors, whilst not being consciously perceivable, cause nausea due to their unfamiliar nature.
