Steering a Flexible Railway Truck on Curved Track

Abstract

This paper gives a linear analysis for the steady motion of a flexible two-axle railway truck on curved track. Most existing truck designs are too rigid to be self-steering, but provided that the primary suspension is sufficiently flexible, it is shown that a truck can negotiate main line curves without slipping or flange contact. Results are obtained for the maximum rolling displacement of the wheelsets (the tracking error), Fig. 8, and the minimum radius of curvature for no slipping, Fig. 10, expressed as a function of the suspension stiffness. It is shown that lateral loads due to superelevation deficiency have only a small effect on the motion of the truck, which is mainly determined by creep forces arising from the geometric inability of the four wheels to roll freely on curved track.