Pantograph for tilting trains

Tilting trains are becoming more and more standard in the world and especially in Europe, where over 13 countries have tilting trains already in service or are within the introduction phase. Out of Europe, only three countries on three other continents use tilting trains. The pioneers in active tilting trains have been Fiat in Italy with the “Pendolino”, running in service since 1988 and the Japanese JR Central with “Series 381” since 1973; the very first application however was the “Talgo” in Spain, a passive tilting system developed since 1943. Together with this penetration of tilting trains, the requirements raise and the market asks for more powerful, and more passenger friendly solutions. In this respect, the current collection with tilting EMUs becomes a critical task, as the customers marketing people do not accept anymore neither infringement of the passenger area nor any reduction of passenger seats due to the tilting system of the pantograph. From the technical side, the geometric conditions of the catenery, the gauge and the pantograph do not allow larger deflections due to the higher cant deficiencies. Therefore, the roll effect of the suspension must be compensated by a sophisticated design. This paper presents the first series solution of FIAT-SIG´s pantograph tilting device, under type testing on the ICN pre-series train, and foreseen for Virgin´s West Coast Main Line trains