NATURAL PENDULUM RAILROAD VEHICLE BASED ON RIGHT ANGLE CARDAN SYSTEM

摘要

A railroad vehicle in which power is transmitted by a right angle cardan system and the body of which is inclined by a natural pendulum system. In a construction based on a right angle cardan system in which the axis of an output shaft extends in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, two prime movers are mounted on one vehicle body in the vicinity of the center thereof so as to face in the opposite directions. Alternatively, one prime mover having a pair of output shafts disposed at its opposite ends may be mounted on the vehicle body generally at the center thereof. Power is transmitted from each output shaft to a corresponding one of axles disposed at longitudinal direction ends of the vehicle through a propeller shaft. The pair of propeller shafts are rotated in the opposite directions by the corresponding output shafts, thereby cancelling the reaction torques produced when the output shafts rotate with equal torques. There is therefore no possibility of the vehicle body being forcibly inclined. It is therefore possible to smoothly incline the vehicle body by the natural pendulum effect.