A DUAL-VOLTAGE gauge-convertible tilting trainset is to be developed by Adtranz and Talgo under an agreement signed on December 21. The President of Patentes Talgo signed the deal with Adtranz Executive Vice-President Heinz Cronimund within the framework of the two companies’ high speed trainset co-operation agreement reached in April 1998 (RG 6.98 p367). Talgo hopes to have the design sufficiently advanced to bid for tenders by the middle of this year.
Adtranz will develop and build the 25 kV 50Hz/3 kV DC propulsion equipment, brakes and control systems, and Talgo will supply the power car bodyshells, gauge-convertible power bogies and the passenger cars. The trailer cars will be derived from Talgo’s Series 7 vehicles, with three-point suspensions and single wheelsets supporting each articulation. The two end power cars will each ride on a two-axle gauge-convertible power bogie and the single-axle articulation of the adjacent coach.
Each power car will have water-cooled modular inverter packs using IGBT technology, with a continuous rating of 1500 kW per car. Top speed of the trainset will be 220 km/h, with 1·5m/s2 of uncompensated lateral acceleration in curves. The decentralised train control and communications network will use an optic fibre bus incorporating monitoring and fault diagnostics.
