Pendolino
From Freepedia
Pendolino is a tilting train used in Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. It was developed and manufactured by Fiat Ferroviaria, now Alstom.
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 put into place 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 round curves designed for slower trains without causing undue discomfort to passengers.
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Italy
In Italy various possibilities along these lines were explored (including one early design for fixed carriages with tilting seats). A number of prototypes were built and tested, and in 1975 a prototype Pendolino, the ETR 401, was put into public service, built by Fiat and operated by Italian State Railways. In 1987 operation began by a full fleet of updated Pendolinos (called the ETR 450), which incorporated some technologies from British Rail's ill-fated APT project. In 1993 the next generation, the ETR-460, began service.
Finland
Image:Pendolino s220.jpg The Finnish model, the S220, is based on the ETR-460, adapted to the specific requirements of VR (Finnish State Railways) and to the cold climatic conditions. The first two units were made by Rautaruukki-Transtech, a rolling stock company now part of Spanish Talgo.
The Pendolino has been conceived as an EMU (Electric Multiple Unit) to keep axle load to an extremely low level in order to allow the train to negotiate curves at a speed higher by up to 35% if compared with conventional Intercity trains (loco plus coaches).
The electrical traction equipment, with continuous power of 4000 kW, includes GTO chopper/inverter and asynchronous motors. The tilting system in the bogie, located entirely under the body, has permitted the reorganisation of the vestibules and passenger compartment areas. The bogie-to-body connection is extremely simple and easy to make, with clear advantages for maintenance.
The body, which exploits large aluminium extrusion technology, has substantial modularity and allows for extremely low axle weight, whilst fully respecting the highest safety standards, and allows the best exploitation of the space with different loading gauges.
The trains for VR are composed of 6 vehicles: two traction units, each unit consists of two motor coaches with a 4QC/inverter/converter with four traction motors (one for each bogie), plus a trailer coach with high voltage equipment (25 kV and 50 Hz) and traction transformer, and two end coaches with aerodynamic driving cab; on of the trailer coaches (TTC) has a special featured bar section.
United Kingdom
Image:390029 'City of Stoke-on-Trent' at Birmingham New Street.JPG In 2004 Virgin Trains in the UK began operating custom-designed Pendolino trains known as the British Rail Class 390 on its West Coast Main Line franchise.
Two decades earlier British Rail had planned to bring tilting train technology to the same line with the APT project. Technical problems and lack of the political will to overcome them, forced the abandonment of this early attempt, although much of the technology is used to build Pendolino trains.
Slovenia
Slovenian Railways operates a Pendolino tilting train similar to the Italian model on its main lines. For more information, see InterCitySlovenija.
Czech Republic
In 2000 Fiat Ferroviaria undertook an order of construction of Czech tilting train and changed it to Pendolino. The first set was delivered in 2004 as Pendolino CD 680, but it had problems with the Czech signalling system. The problem is now solved and regular operation will start at December 2005. While testing near Brno on November 18, 2004, the Pendolino reached a speed of 237 km/h and created a new Czech railway speed record.
The future
Currently, a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe have ordered Pendolino trainsets, including Poland and possibly Romania. For this reason, the Pendolino-type train is set to be the one with the greatest penetration in the high-speed market of Central and Eastern Europe.
Technical information (Finnish trains)
- Max. speed: 220 km/h
- Power: 4000 kW
- Traction motors: 8 asynchronous three-phase AC
- Acceleration, 0 - 100 km/h: 57 s 810 m (a=0.50 m/s2)
- Acceleration, 0 - 200 km/h: 193 s 6 800 m (a=0.37 m/s2)
- Braking, 140 - 0 km/h: 750 m (a=1.01 m/s2)
- Braking, 200 - 0 km/h: 1650 m (a=0.94 m/s2)
- Tractive effort at rims: 163 kN
- Length: 158.9 m
- Width: 3.2 m
- Height: 3.73 m
- Weight: 328 t (originally 316 t)
- Max. axle load: 14.3 t (originally 13.25 t)
- Wheel diameter: new 890 mm, fully worn 850 mm
- Gauge: 1524 mm
- Max. tilting angle: 8°
- Total number of seats: 309 [307 + 2 H] (originally 262 + 2H)
- Max. noise level inside: 65 dBA
- Ambient temperature range: -40 °C - +35 °C
