I recently traveled by Virgin Trains from London to northern England. A rather peaceful journey, the service in first class was great – with wine, tea/coffee and snacks all served to you while enjoying the English countryside. I was however, particularly interested in the engineering of the train itself, since it was the first one I’ve been in which had a tilting mechanism that keeps the G force proportionate while the train is at high speed at a turn.
When you ride a motorbike and going at high speeds, the way to achieve maximum flexibility is to tilt the bike to one side while making a turn. Unless the turn is sudden and very sharp, slowing down isn’t necessary; it could be done with the same speed as going on a straight road using the right amount of tilt to the bike. The same principal applies to these trains that travel at high speeds and do not wish to slow down. Usually on train tracks, there are no sudden sharp turns so using the tilting technology helps keeps the things in the train from flying around, people who are standing from falling down and things on a table from tipping over.
The most successful company to make active tilting (computer-controlled power mechanism) is Italian based Pendolino (built and produced by Fiat, bought by Alstom in 2000). Most trains in Europe and China use Pendolino active tilting mechanism which is reliable and almost accurate in its timing. This company was one of the pioneers in train tilting which was brought into service in the 1970s after many people felt that high speed trains are the way forward.
Earlier, with passive tilting (inertial forces cause the tilting) passengers complained about feeling nauseate. This was because the human body did not reduce the Coriolis Effect (click to view video about this) during the tilting process. With the advancement of computers and the ability to sensor objects and distance, nausea has decreased immensely during the high speed tilting train travels. However, during my journey few days ago, I did feel nauseate to some extent and believe the system of tilting is still yet to be improved and perfected. In time, it will…
Anmol Karnik 
Posted on October 9, 2012
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