How trains actually turn? | on curved rail track.

How trains actually turn? | on curved rail track.

A train negotiating a curve presents a dramatic sight. However, negotiating a curve with rigidly attached wheels is not as simple as a car making a turn on a curved road. Here I show how the ingenious engineering of the railway wheel allows a train to negotiate a curve despite fixed wheels.

Have you ever watched a train roll by? If so, you might have wondered how the train is able to stay on its tracks. The secret lies in the train's wheels. Although they seem cylindrical at first glance, when looking more closely you will notice that they have a slightly semi-conical shape.

This special geometry is what keeps trains on the tracks.

At turning:

Inner wheel rolls on smallest circumference while outer wheel on largest circumference (this is possible only due to conical shape of wheel) this helps the outer wheel to cover more distance in the same time than inner wheel.

There is no any difference between the turning of a train and an automobile,Except that train has conical shape wheel for that purpose whereas an automobile has differential.

The wheels on each side of a train car are connected with a metal rod called an axle. This axle keeps the two train wheels moving together, both turning at the same speed when the train is moving. 

This construction is great for straight tracks. But when a train needs to go around a bend the fact that both wheels are always rotating at the same rate can become a problem. The outside of a curve is slightly longer than the inside, so the wheel on the outside rail actually needs to cover more distance than the wheel on the inside rail.

The outside line of the track should be longer than the inside line. But how can one wheel cover more distance than the other one if they both are rotating at the same rate?

This is where the wheels' geometry comes in. To help the wheels stay on the track their shape is usually slightly conical. This means that the inside of the wheel has a larger circumference than the outside of the wheel. (They also have a flange, or raised edge, on the inner side to prevent the train from falling off the tracks.) When a train with slanted wheels turns, centrifugal force pushes the outside wheel to the larger part of the cone and pushes the inside wheel to the smaller part of the cone. As a result when a train is turning it is momentarily running on wheels that are effectively two different sizes. As the outside wheel's circumference becomes larger it is able to travel a greater distance even though it rotates at the same rate as the smaller inside wheel. The train successfully stays on the tracks! In this activity you will test for yourself how train wheel shapes impact their ability to stay on track.

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How trains actually turn? | on curved rail track.

A train negotiating a curve presents a dramatic sight. However, negotiating a curve with rigidly attached wheels is not as simple as a car making a turn on a curved road. Here I show how the ingenious engineering of the railway wheel allows a train to negotiate a curve despite fixed wheels.

Have you ever watched a train roll by? If so, you might have wondered how the train is able to stay on its tracks. The secret lies in the train's wheels. Although they seem cylindrical at first glance, when looking more closely you will notice that they have a slightly semi-conical shape.

This special geometry is what keeps trains on the tracks.

At turning:

Inner wheel rolls on smallest circumference while outer wheel on largest circumference (this is possible only due to conical shape of wheel) this helps the outer wheel to cover more distance in the same time than inner wheel.

There is no any difference between the turning of a train and an automobile,Except that train has conical shape wheel for that purpose whereas an automobile has differential.

The wheels on each side of a train car are connected with a metal rod called an axle. This axle keeps the two train wheels moving together, both turning at the same speed when the train is moving. 

This construction is great for straight tracks. But when a train needs to go around a bend the fact that both wheels are always rotating at the same rate can become a problem. The outside of a curve is slightly longer than the inside, so the wheel on the outside rail actually needs to cover more distance than the wheel on the inside rail.

The outside line of the track should be longer than the inside line. But how can one wheel cover more distance than the other one if they both are rotating at the same rate?

This is where the wheels' geometry comes in. To help the wheels stay on the track their shape is usually slightly conical. This means that the inside of the wheel has a larger circumference than the outside of the wheel. (They also have a flange, or raised edge, on the inner side to prevent the train from falling off the tracks.) When a train with slanted wheels turns, centrifugal force pushes the outside wheel to the larger part of the cone and pushes the inside wheel to the smaller part of the cone. As a result when a train is turning it is momentarily running on wheels that are effectively two different sizes. As the outside wheel's circumference becomes larger it is able to travel a greater distance even though it rotates at the same rate as the smaller inside wheel. The train successfully stays on the tracks! In this activity you will test for yourself how train wheel shapes impact their ability to stay on track.

solidworks,solidworks tutorial,solidworks full tutorial,solidworks tutorial for beginners,solidworks animation,solidworks design tutorial,solidworks assembly tutorial,solidworks motion study,solidworks motion study tutorial,solidworks motion analysis,

how train change track,train track changing,train track changing mechanism,railway switches and crossing,rail track changer,rail swtich stand,train track changing mechanism,railway turnout,railroad,rail crossing,railway signal