Re: Sydney to Albury track

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

Santosh Bhat (santosh@student.unsw.edu.au) wrote:
> I've been told that the XPTs have a top speed of 180km/h (though i think
> they've gone faster on controlled trials), but the maximum operating
> speed they go at is 160km/h, well thats what the buufet car menu states.

The XPT is geared lower than the HST because of the steeper gradients in
Australia.

> Countrylink tried running a tilt train on the tracks, and the benefits
> were only marginal and probably not worth the purchase of a whole new
> fleet of trains.

Yes and no. The X2000 did not operate to its full potential for several
reasons:
1) Having to slow for staff exchange between Joppa Jcn and Canberra.
2) Jerry rigged motive power not designed for the purpose.
3) Only partial tilting was possible. The XPs had damped suspension to
   prevent them leaning out of the curve while the cars were leaning in,
   but the full 7.5 degrees wasn't possible.
4) Full tinting was impossible because it woudl have gone out of gauge. 
5) Wrong side tilting would have ben WAAAAAAY out of gauge!
6) As a result, the tilting was disabled about half the time.

ABB/Adtranz made a lot of improvements to suspension and the active
tilting mechanism as a result of the Australian experience. This
experience is being employed in a new range of 160km/h and 200km/h tilting
DMUs. What Countrylink needs to do is try one of these.

Cheers
David