A railway vehicle with single-axle trucks enables to decrease maintenance cost of wheels and rails due to their high curving performance and its lightweight. However, there is disadvantage in ride comfort due to vertical vibration. In view of such a situation, we proposed a new design concept of the single-axle trucks, which is movable in pitch rotation similar to the two-axle bogies. In this paper, we carried out an analytical study on vibration isolation characteristics, ride comfort and curving ability of the new trucks. As a result, it was apparent that the characteristics of vibration isolation improved in the frequency range less than 10 Hz. It is also evident that axle dampers enabled to suppress the vibration of car-body at a high frequency region. Finally, we verified the high curving performance of the new trucks.

Copyright (c) 2006 Railway Technical Research Institute