Airport trains
Sir - We should like to correct the picture caption in RG 3.97 p141 about rolling stock for Hong Kong’s Airport Railway.
At the end of 1994, the Mass Transit Railway Corporation awarded a contract to Adtranz-CAF Joint Venture for the delivery of 23 trains for Hong Kong. The leader of the Joint Venture is Adtranz (Germany), whose scope of supply comprises the traction equipment including the control equipment, while CAF will deliver the car bodies, bogies, the interior fittings and the air-conditioning equipment, as well as the complete auxiliary equipment (including static inverter).
Assembly and static commissioning will be carried out in Spain, while final acceptance is to take place in Hong Kong.
Dave Barry and Edward Evans
ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation (Deutschland) GmbH
RTC Nahverkehr, Großprojekt (Hong Kong-LAR)
Hennigsdorf, Germany
Tilt reality
Sir - Your editorial addition to Roger Ford’s article on tilting trains strikes a negative note, though it is good to know that your daughter’s balance canals are in good health. It was during the war that the Royal Aircraft Establishment published the link between vision, balance and nausea which has been so useful ever since to those of us prone to motion sickness.
All trains are tilting trains round bends, but most of them are limited to 6in of superelevation whilst tilting trains work around double that, but your daughter never has any discomfort making 1·4 ’g’ turns (40in super-elevation) on her bicycle or skates. Of course the trouble arises when the real eyes are not in a position to see the real fixed world so she should shut those eyes and open the inner virtual reality eyes to paint a picture in line with what those canals know is happening. Once one learns the trick, a rough sea at night can be as pleasurable a sensation as a roller coaster ride in daylight.
R L Whiteley
Penwortham, Preston, Great Britain
