Más bien lo importante que era la línea para que este tren experimental hiciera pruebas por sus vías.

There are issues when changing large gauge differences like that. The golden-pass Express in Switzerland switches from meter and standard gauge with a different approach

They are sloghtly tapered. Outside of switches and maybe curves, the flanges dont wven touch the rails.

@@Germanwtb Thanks for your reply. Yes I understand that the wheels are tapered but they stay centralised to the track and move on bends to accommodate different track lengths because they are on a fixed axle. With wheels that rotate independently there's nothing to stop the wheels moving from side to side as there's nothing that keeps their rotational speed the same. Whatever it is, works but to my mind it goes against the basic principles.

@@paul756uk2 what do you mean by "shells"?

@@Germanwtb was supposed to be wheels. I've corrected it.

Trains are fixed axles. Right and left rotate at the same speed. They are like a slice of a cone, in that they are tapered. In a turn, even though they are spinning the same speed, the train shifts slightly out of the curve, making the outside wheel on the wider part, and the inside on the narrower. The fact they are spinning at the same speed with different diameters means the train turns.

history

It is much easier to use adjustable wheel pairs on international routes than to rework the whole railroad and also domestic trains just to match newer standards. Smaller countries like most EU members may still update their railroads because they have more international trains than domestic ones but that is not the case for Russia.

@infraredbob Yes, but why should we always focus on sharp turns and things like that? The most of the railway lines are not on mountains. What we need is speed, greater capacity and robustness. It is more reliable for longer routes. Take for example, Indian railways run on 68,000 km long broad gauge tracks carrying 22 million passengers a day.

@infraredbob That's legend only. Indian railways run from mountains to coastal areas via long plateau areas and has sharp curves too. Not only in India, but also in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and even Australian metro is running on broad gauge. . Standard gauge is preferred for cost factor only. More production, less cost. That's why standard gauge is cheaper and popular. But my point was to introduce a universal gauge so trains can run across entire continent. Trains are coming from Europe to Asia but 'gauge barrier' is there. Because, again, Russian gauge is broad gauge. That's why, excluding mountain railways, we must have unified gauge system.

@infraredbob India adopted broad gauge about 150 years ago and Indian railways is the 4th largest railway network. Several countries have broad gauge. It works very fine. Russia also has broad gauge and not standard gauge. So you cannot convert gauge over 200,000 km overnight. But new tracks can be build keeping future perspective in mind. Otherwise airplanes will keep generating more and more hydrocarbon.

@infraredbob Well, if India had standard gauge and Europe had broad gauge even then I'd vote for broad gauge. I am not talking about local traffic. I am talking about much longer routes that connects one country to another. And that again versatility? :D That is required either for local trains or for Disney trains.

Exactly the Talgo XXI or just usage of Talgo cars in general?

Makes me wanna "gag"

American English spelling. Deal with it. For all the cacography of English, this IS more phonetic than "gauge".

Some rail systems are built with different gauges (the distance between the rails.) The most common is called Standard guage but if a train wants to travel from a place with a standard guage Railway to a place that can only be reached by let's say a broad cuage railway, then traditionally the train would have to stop, everyone would have to leave the train, while the cars are lifted up in the air, to change the wheelsets to fit the new guage. This could and still does take many hours per train. However with this system the train can automatically switch guage when driving over this device at slow speeds, which changes the wheelsets while the train is travelling at around 20km/h. It's also worth noting that the company that has made this is from Spain, which uses a broad guage system, meaning this system has been used, for ages on trains between Spain and places elsewhere in Europe that uses standard guage.

Exactly. It's gauge not gage.

Let's see. ITEM, The *channel (if you're trying to be spelling police, you might try to avoid Muphry's law, as well as forego extra spaces before punctuation...) is called "Talgo America". ITEM, "gage" is the American English spelling of "gauge". I can't get rid of the nagging feeling that these two facts are connected...

@@Thursdaym2 Unless when it isn't.

@infraredbob even the United States doesn't use all standard gauge

Isso é mesmo incrível: o sistema troca de bitola automaticamente! É a solução para as nossas ferrovias.

Would it be feasible betw 1000mm gauge and 1600 mm gauge?

@@centredoorplugsthornton4112 yes, it would only need size configuration, here in Spain we have 5 different widen of tracks from 1672 to 941mm. 2 are for subways but it can work for any wide required. (Spanish/espanhol) www.trenvista.net/descubre/mundo-ferroviario/ancho-iberico-otros-anchos-de-via-espana/

Political reasons. Due to different wheel clearance, an English gauge train cannot travel on a Russian or an Iberian gauge line. Wheels will suddenly get out of the rail. Vice versa, an Iberian gauge train cannot travel on an English gauge rail as wheels will fall between the rails.

Military reasons also.

Spain is more mountainous that's why we have wider gauge

It's to avoid being invaded by Andorra..

@@javierba8826 For tighter curves narrower gauges are better.