The slides of the presentation I gave in November at the West of England section meeting of the Permanent Way Institution: The main topics presented: – Cant parameters definition. The origin of the 11.82 (UK) cant constant. Ways of applying cant. – Track geometry recording. Track Quality Standard deviation. Inherent standard deviation. Quality bands…
When it comes to Railway track engineering literature, there are a few books we can consider “classic”. Even old, some very old, these books still have significant railway engineering value and can be always a good reference both for young and inexperienced engineers as for the ones that already have robust railway track experience and…
The good old times Since the early beginnings of the railway, the track engineers were aware of the centrifugal forces influence to the train riding when passing through a curved section of track. To compensate this influence, the track was inclined laterally by creating a positive level difference between the outer and inner rails of a…
In transportation engineering there is the following signage convention for curves in horizontal alignment design: a right hand curve is considered positive a left hand curve is considered negative This convention is considered relative to the stationing direction of that alignment. This signage convention is established in the following way (see the figure above):
This is an animation showing how a PWay Track Horizontal Alignment Virtual Transition is defined by the trajectory of the vehicle centre, when is passing over a railway track section with a sudden change in curvature: The nature of this curve is presented in this post: THE VIRTUAL TRANSITION CURVATURE VARIATION. More details about this principle…
A railway vehicle moving along a circular curve is subjected to an inertial centrifugal acceleration (ac), directly proportional with its speed and in reverse proportion with the curve radius. This lateral acceleration is perceived by the passengers as an uncomfortable sensation and, above a certain limit, endangers the lateral stability of the running vehicle. In…
(A prelude to a proper article about the Virtual Transition) Motto: Measured, weighed and divided. Principle of Virtual Transition The Principle of Virtual Transition is used in Permanent Way alignment design to establish when a transition curve in not needed and design a sudden change in curvature. The principle is defined in sheet B.3.4 of…
The track geometry is governed by numbers and all the time we are using them to design and check our work. The geometry of the non-linear transition curves is also governed by important numbers, useful to know in the alignment design when these transitions are used: – Bloss – Cosine (and its close approximation: the…
A railway track blog 