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History of Stability of Railway and Road Vehicles
109
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1999
Year
Railway Vehicle StabilityRailway TrafficVehicle Dynamics (Space Vehicle Dynamics)EngineeringRail TransportVehicle ControlCivil EngineeringMechanical SystemsVehicle DynamicSystems EngineeringRailway VehiclesTrain ControlKinematicsRoad VehiclesTransportation EngineeringShimmy PhenomenonVehicle Dynamics (Mechanical Engineering)Stability
Vehicle stability, governed by kinematics and contact mechanics, has been a key design criterion since the 19th century, with foundational work by Carter and Rocard and renewed interest as speeds rose in the mid‑20th century. The paper examines historical links between railway and road vehicle stability approaches and identifies remaining open questions.
Stability of running of vehicles is one of the important design criteria of railway and road vehicles. Railway vehicle stability is based on kinematics as well as contact mechanics. It reaches back to the 19th century and had its first hey-day with the work of Carter and Rocard on stability of locomotives. A rediscovery of their knowledge, which seemed to have been forgotten, was inevitable due to increased vehicle speeds since the early Fifties. — Though investigations on road vehicle stability only began approximately in 1930 with the treatment of the shimmy phenomenon, realistic solutions were available at the same time as for railway vehicles. Besides considering historical aspects we discuss in the paper links which exist between both approaches; open questions are described.