A Japanese KiHa 283 series tilting DMU, which can tilt up to 8° (6° in normal operation)
A ČD Class 680 Pendolino train in July 2006
A Swiss SBB RABDe 500 on the Hauenstein railway line in May 2007
A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train (or other vehicle) rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest, and standing passengers to lose their balance, or in such excessive speeds, could even cause the train to derail. Tilting trains are designed to counteract this by tilting the carriages towards the inside of the curve, thus compensating for the g-force. The train may be constructed such that inertial forces cause the tilting (passive tilt), or it may have a computer-controlled powered mechanism (active tilt).
The first passive tilting car design was built in the US in 1937, and an improved version was built in 1939. The beginning of World War II ended development. Talgo introduced a version based on their articulated bogie design in 1950s, and this concept was used on a number of commercial services. Among these was the UAC TurboTrain, which was the first (albeit short-lived) tilting train to enter commercial service in 1968 in the US and Canada. Parallel experiments in Japan and Italy through the 591 Series[1] and the Fiat Y 0160 developed into the highly successful 381 series which began services in 1973 and is in service today, and the Pendolino family currently being used in 11 countries since 1976. All of these had problems with short curves like those in switchyards, where they tended to sway about. Also, because of the way the carriages always swung outward, they placed more weight on the outside of the curve, which limited their improvement in cornering speed to about 20%.
Starting in the late 1960s, British Rail began experiments with its Advanced Passenger Train (APT) which pioneered the active-tilt concept. This used hydraulic rams on the bottoms of the carriages to tilt them, rotating them around their centre point rather than swinging outward. This had the advantage of keeping the carriage centred over the bogies, which reduced load on the rails, and could be turned off when navigating switches. Due to lengthy delays, the APT did not begin test runs until 1981 and entered commercial service only briefly in 1985. 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.
Fiat developed their Pendolino design into the most successful type of tilting train, with over 500 trains active in Europe. The concept of active tilt as a whole has been independently developed by many companies. Active tilting systems are widely used today.
^プロトタイプの世界 - Prototype World (in Japanese). Japan: Kōtsū Shimbunsha. December 2005. pp. 12–19. OCLC 170056962.
"passive" tiltingtrains that exactly balanced the outward force. The effect could be felt under maximum speed and tilt, when the combination of tilting outside...
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The Advanced Passenger Train (APT) was a tilting high speed train developed by British Rail during the 1970s and early 1980s, for use on the West Coast...
X 2000, also called SJ X2 or simply X2, is an electric high-speed tiltingtrain operated by SJ in Sweden. It was constructed by Kalmar Verkstad in Kalmar...
Tilting may refer to: Tilt (camera), a cinematographic technique Tilting at windmills, an English idiom Tilting theory, an algebra theory Exponential...
than the other. In contrast to other Fiat Ferroviaria tiltingtrains which use hydraulic tilting actuators, the electromechanical system offers lower maintenance...
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(124 mph), and it employs tilting technology, which allows it to travel through curvy routes faster than non-tiltingtrains. The train sets were a joint development...
for centrifugal forces by tilting appropriately on bends. Without needing to modify the track infrastructure, this tiltingtrain allowed operating speeds...
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the two electric tiltingtrains between Brisbane and Rockhampton in 1998, the City of Cairns and City of Townsville diesel tilttrains were introduced...
have also implemented tilting designs. The British Rail Class 390 is a tiltingtrain operating in the UK. The earliest form of train lighting was provided...
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Bombardier Voyager, a high-speed train operated in the United Kingdom Bombardier Voyager (British Rail Class 220), a non-tiltingtrain built 2000–2001 Bombardier...
operate fast trains across the Alps using tiltingtrains. In 2005, however, it also took over all daytime long-distance passenger trains between Switzerland...
Class 221 Super Voyagers with tilting mechanisms operated by Avanti West Coast travel at that speed. Non-tiltingtrains are limited to 110 mph (177 km/h)...
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