Railways – Switches – For toothed rail
Patent
1983-04-07
1987-10-27
Reeves, Robert B.
Railways
Switches
For toothed rail
104 96, E01B 2506
Patent
active
047021730
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to means of transportation and concerns guideways and vehicles providing transport for people or things. The guideways may be elevated structures, or may be at ground level or through tunnels. They support the vehicles, guide them and keep them upright.
Vehicle weight may be supported by any known means, such as pneumatic tyres, solid tires, steel cylindrical or coned wheels, magnetic levitation or air cushion. Guidance may be provided by any known means, for example any of the means last mentioned.
Urban passenger transport mostly uses buses, but these are suffering from road congestion. So called "rapid transit" is generally recognised to be better in principle, but its application is limited by capital cost. Capital cost is related to vehicle size, tunnel size and track specific load. Vehicle size has hitherto been determined by the capacity required. This invention aims to provide transportation means wherein trains may be substantially the same length as at present, but comprise smaller vehicles with better access running more frequently. This may be made possible by enabling people to get on and off quickly and easily.
Conventional rapid transit vehicles place seats along each outer wall. People stand in congested lines between the seats, and in larger areas close to the doors. The situation resembles a rugby scrum at every station during rush hours. People trying to get off have to fight their way out of the vehicle, firstly past those not wanting to alight and then past those already entering the vehicle. This "free-for-all" limits the frequency of trains by delaying them at stations. Delay makes people more determined than ever to get on board, and thus a vicious circle of diminishing returns is forced on everyone. The upshot is that, for all their theoretical capacity, most-existing rapid transit systems spend relatively long periods non-productively static at stations, and more especially so at peak periods.
In embodiments according to the invention there may be provided relatively small vehicles, say 3 meters long by 1.5 meters wide, with seats at each end only, wide doors each side and standing room very close indeed to the doors. Each vehicle may carry, for example, twelve to fifteen passengers, of whom up to six may be seated. No passenger is more than approximately 1.3 meters from a door, and preferably passengers leave by one door and enter by a different door on the other side of the vehicle. Trains may comprise, for example, forty vehicles (that corresponds approximately to the length of a London Underground train at present). Passengers can leave freely, without conflict with people standing or entering. Those entering can do so right away, when space is available, and have no more than slightly over one meter to move inside the vehicle. This reduces the entering and leaving time at stations, and enables trains to run more frequently.
Such vehicles are required to be tall enough to accommodate standing passengers and narrow enough to keep people close to the doors. This makes them unstable with respect to lateral rolling, especially so because they are preferably light for economic reasons and may run in comparatively long trains. Other problems include traction, load distribution between so many automotive vehicles (i.e. each has a traction motor) and the choice between automatic or driver control. However those problems are no longer insuperable and this invention is to provide means to give transverse stability to very light vehicles, through improvements to guideways and vehicles, and to provide adequate transverse guidance for them to operate in long trains. This is especially important for operation on elevated guideways, where strong winds could cause derailment.
According to the invention there is provided means of transportation including a guideway comprising two horizontally spaced parallel rails each having an upper substantially horizontal flange on top of a substantially vertical web, at least one vehicle having bottom support means for movably suppo
REFERENCES:
patent: 3083649 (1963-04-01), Nelson
patent: 3780666 (1973-12-01), Perrott
patent: 3871300 (1975-03-01), Perrott
patent: 3890904 (1975-06-01), Edwards
patent: 4203369 (1980-05-01), Perrott
patent: 4214535 (1980-07-01), Gerhard
Pido John G.
Reeves Robert B.
LandOfFree
Vehicle supported in cantilever fashion and switching of at rail does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Vehicle supported in cantilever fashion and switching of at rail, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle supported in cantilever fashion and switching of at rail will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1265959