{"id":4571,"date":"2021-04-05T00:06:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T22:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/?p=4571"},"modified":"2021-04-05T01:18:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T23:18:33","slug":"changing-gauge-without-missing-a-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/changing-gauge-without-missing-a-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing gauge without missing a beat"},"content":{"rendered":"
Gauge changeover installations are a fairly new development in the history of railways, providing a solution to the strategic, economic and technical decisions of the past, when lines with different gauges were built in each country, making it difficult for trains to run between them: in Europe alone, there are four different main gauges: 1,000 mm (narrow), 1,435 mm (European standard), 1,520 mm (Russian gauge) and 1,668 mm (Iberian gauge). The inability of trains to change from one line to another with a different gauge has historically caused operational and travel problems, since it meant that passengers had to change trains, resulting in inconvenience, costs and wasted time.<\/p>\n
In just a few minutes, these automatic systems allow trains to change their gauge. With this versatile and cost-effective solution, Spain is contributing to the integration of EU markets by reducing infrastructure bottlenecks<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Spain\u2019s case is particularly complex, as three types of track gauge coexist: the Iberian or conventional gauge, which is shared with Portugal, the metric gauge of the former Ferrocarriles de V\u00eda Estrecha (FEVE) lines, and the European standard gauge, which was adopted for high-speed lines. These are just three of the many gauges that exist in the world, making this technology exportable to other countries with similar characteristics, as is the case of the Baltic countries that currently have Russian gauge and are developing their Rail Baltica high-speed line in the European standard gauge. All of the countries of the former Soviet Union are in a similar situation.<\/p>\n
A ground-breaking development<\/h4>\n
The departure of trains from Spain to France and the other countries of Europe that use a different gauge has been a constant challenge that has led to the development and improvement of gauge changeover technology. Until the late 1960s, border crossings were done by lifting the carriages and replacing the axles or bogies of one gauge with those of another gauge. The first use of ground-breaking technology that allowed gauge changeover by directly modifying the axle gauge as it passed through a pit took place in 1968 with the first test run of a Talgo Madrid-Paris train using the changeover installation installed at the Ir\u00fan-Hendaye border; in 1969, the changeover installation was installed at Portbou-Cerb\u00e8re, which was already in commercial service. These facilities allowed towed Talgo trains to run on routes between Spain and France in much less time.<\/p>\n