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Tilt Authorisation And Speed Supervision
The Tilt Authorisation and Speed Supervision System, abbreviated as TASS, is an overlay to train protection systems allowing the control of speeds of tilting trains. It is only installed on the West Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom. Its trainborne part is fitted to British Rail Class 221 and Class 390s. History The history of TASS is connected to the modernisation program of the West Coast Main Line conducted by Railtrack and successor Network Rail in the early 2000s. The modernisation plan included ambitious targets to increase the line speed from to . This would include the use of tilting trains on the existing tracks. The tilting train tender was won by Alstom with its Pendolino technology. The first batch of 53 Class 390s trains delivered between 2001 and 2004, did not differ heavily from the other Pendolino systems. They had been provided to areas with very different train protection systems before and there was a requirement to include features of the Europea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Train Protection System
A train protection system is a railway technical installation to ensure safe operation in the event of human error. Development Train stops The earliest systems were train stops, as still used by the New York City Subway, the Toronto subway, the London Underground, the Moscow Subway (only on the older lines) and the Berlin S-Bahn. Beside every signal is a moveable arm. If the signal is red, levers connected to valves on any passing train hit the arm, opening the brake line, applying the emergency brake, If the signal shows green, the arm is turned away from the levers and there is no contact. The Great Western Railway in the UK introduced its 'automatic train control' system in the early years of the 20th century. Each distant signal had before it a ramp between the running rails. If the signal showed green, the ramp was energised with a low voltage current which was passed to the locomotive when a shoe came into contact with the ramp. A bell rang in the locomotive's cab t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tilting Train
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. 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 Tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest mixed-traffic railway routes in Europe, carrying a mixture of intercity rail, regional rail, commuter rail and rail freight traffic. The core route of the WCML runs from London to Glasgow for and was opened from 1837 to 1869. With additional lines deviating to Northampton, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh, this totals a route mileage of . The Glasgow–Edinburgh via Carstairs line connects the WCML to Edinburgh, however the main London–Edinburgh route is the East Coast Main Line. Several sections of the WCML form part of the suburban railway systems in London, Coventry, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, with many more smaller commuter stations, as well as providing links to more rural towns. It is one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Rail Class 221
The British Rail Class 221 ''Super Voyager'' is a class of tilting diesel-electric multiple unit express passenger trains built in Bruges, Belgium, by Bombardier Transportation in 2001/02. The Class 221 are similar to the Class 220 ''Voyager'' units, but were built with a tilting mechanism enabling up to six degrees of tilt to allow higher speeds on curved tracks, most have five coaches, and they have a different bogie design. They have a maximum speed of . Currently these trains are divided between two operators, Avanti West Coast (20 sets) and CrossCountry (24 sets). The sets operated by CrossCountry had their tilt function disabled in 2008 to improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs. Details The Class 221s were produced as 5- or 4-coach sets. Each coach is equipped with a Cummins QSK19 diesel engine producing at 1,800 rpm, driving an electrical generator which powers two motors, each driving one (inner) axle per bogie via a cardan shaft and final drive. c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Rail Class 390
The British Rail Class 390 ''Pendolino'' is a type of electric high-speed passenger train operated by Avanti West Coast in the United Kingdom, leased from Angel Trains. They are electric multiple units using Fiat Ferroviaria's tilting train Pendolino technology and built by Alstom. Fifty-three units were originally built between 2001 and 2004 for operation on the West Coast Main Line (WCML). They were ordered as eight-car units, later extended to nine cars, of which some were then lengthened further to 11 cars. These new 11-car trains were renumbered as the subclass 390/1. The trains of the original batch were the last to be assembled at Alstom's Washwood Heath plant, before its closure in 2005. The remaining trains in the fleet were built in Italy. The Class 390 ''Pendolino'' is one of the fastest domestic electric multiple units operating in Britain, with a design speed of ; however, limitations to track signalling systems restrict the trains to a maximum speed of in ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railtrack
Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of British Rail, listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 2002, after experiencing major financial difficulty, most of Railtrack's operations were transferred to the state-controlled non-profit company Network Rail. The remainder of Railtrack was renamed RT Group plc and eventually dissolved on 22 June 2010. History Background and founding During the early 1990s, the Conservative Party decided to pursue the privatisation of Britain's nationalised railway operator British Rail. A white paper released in July 1992 had called for a publicly-owned company to be primarily responsible for the railway infrastructure, including the tracks, signalling, and stations, while train operations would be franc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's length" public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways. Network Rail's main customers are the private train operating companies (TOCs), responsible for passenger transport, and freight operating companies (FOCs), who provide train services on the infrastructure that the company owns and maintains. Since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a "public sector body". To cope with fast-increasing passenger numbers, () Network Rail has been undertaking a £38 billion programme of upgrades to the network, including Crossrail, electrification of lines and upgrading Thameslink. In May 2021, the Government announced its intent to replace Network Rail in 2023 with a n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alstom
Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia and New Pendolino high-speed trains, in addition to suburban, regional and metro trains, and Citadis trams. Alsthom (originally Als-Thom) was formed by a merger between Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston and the electric engineering division of Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques in 1928. Significant later acquisitions included the Constructions Electriques de France (1932), shipbuilder Chantiers de l'Atlantique (1976), and parts of ACEC (Belgium, late-1980s). A merger with parts of the General Electric Company (UK) formed GEC Alsthom in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, the company expanded its holdings in the rail sector, via the acquisition of German rolling stock manufacturer Linke-Hofmann-Busch and Italian rail s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pendolino
Pendolino (from Italian ''pendolo'' "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of tilting trains used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, the US, Switzerland, China and Greece. Based on the design of the Italian ETR 401 (itself being based on British Rail innovations), it was further developed and manufactured by Fiat Ferroviaria, which was taken over by Alstom in 2000. The idea of a tilting train became popular in the 1960s and 1970s when various rail operators, impressed by the high-speed rail services being introduced in France and Japan, wondered how they could similarly speed up travel without building a dedicated parallel rail network (as those two countries were doing). By tilting, the train could go around curves designed for slower trains at higher speeds without causing undue discomfort to passengers. Current use Italy In Italy, various possibilities wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail (magazine)
''Rail'' is a British magazine on the subject of current rail transport in Great Britain. It is published every two weeks by Bauer Consumer Media and can be bought from the travel sections of UK newsstands. It is targeted primarily at the enthusiast market, but also covers issues relating to rail transport. ''Rail'' is more than four decades old, and was called ''Rail Enthusiast'' from its launch in 1981 until 1988. It is one of only two railway magazines that increased its circulation. It has roughly the same cover design for several years, with a capitalised italic red ''RAIL'' along the top of the front cover. Editorial policy ''Rail'' is customarily critical of railway institutions, including the Rail Delivery Group, the Office of Rail and Road, as well as, since it assumed greater railway powers, the Department for Transport. ''Rail's'' continuing campaigns include one against advertising and media images showing celebrities and others walking between the rails (an uns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Rail Traffic Management System
The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the system of standards for management and interoperation of signalling for railways by the European Union (EU). It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the organisational umbrella for the separately managed parts of * GSM–R (communication), * European Train Control System (ETCS, signalling), * European Train Management Layer (ETML, payload management) The main target of ERTMS is to promote the interoperability of trains in the EU. It aims to greatly enhance safety, increase efficiency of train transports and enhance cross-border interoperability of rail transport in Europe. This is done by replacing former national signalling equipment and operational procedures with a single new Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems. The development process was started with the technical foundations for communication (GSM-R) and signalling (ETCS). Both are well established and in ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurobalise
A Eurobalise is a specific variant of a balise being a transponder placed between the rails of a railway. These balises constitute an integral part of the European Train Control System, where they serve as "beacons" giving the exact location of a train as well as transmitting signalling information in a digital telegram to the train. Overview A balise typically needs no power source. In response to radio frequency energy broadcast by a (BTM) mounted under a passing train, the balise transmits information to the train ('Uplink'). The provisions for Eurobalises to receive information from the train ('Downlink') has been removed from the specification. The transmission rate is sufficient to transmit at least 3 copies of a 'telegram' to be received by a train passing at any speed up to 500 km/h. Eurobalises are typically placed in pairs on two sleepers in the center of the track. For ETCS they are typically spaced 3 metres apart. With the balises being numbered the train will ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
