Articulating a Pacer

[sprinterguy]

I had a thought the other day, as I sometimes do, and wondered whether what I had in mind might be a novel (and, admittedly, far fetched) idea to improve the ride quality of the much maligned Pacer railbus:

What I was thinking was what if one were to remove the current passenger gangway connection between the two (or three, in the case of some of the 144s) vehicles that make up a Pacer unit, and replace it with a wider, more substantial semi-flexible arrangement on a pivot, much like many light rail vehicles. Beneath this central connection would be mounted a two axle bogie, which would replace the present single axle that supports each vehicle at the inner end.

At the outer (driving) end, the current single axle arrangement would be retained, which would continue to "steer"/guide the unit into curves. I reckon that this idea, having a Pacer with a central bogie supporting the inner ends of each carriage, has potential to possibly improve the ride quality of a Pacer: The middle carriage of a three-car 144 would in fact be suspended on an articulated bogie at each end!

Axle weight, often cited as an issue with using articulated bogies shared between vehicles, wouldn't be a problem, as the unit would still be mounted on the same number of axles as it had been originally, and I don't think that there would be many issues with end and centre throw making the carriages out of gauge, as the carriages of a Pacer are already so much shorter than any other passenger carrying heavy rail vehicle on the network (Except the PPMs).

Now, I can't think of any practical applications for this arrangement, and it would be unrealistic to expect this to be carried out when the Pacers only have a short lifespan left ahead of them. But, in theory, could this work?

So, please feel free to tear this concept apart in telling me the many reasons why it would be unfeasible, but please bear in mind that this post is intended to be fairly light hearted!

 

[Lampshade]

So you're essentially talking about turning Pacers into bendy buses

 

[sprinterguy]

So you're essentially talking about turning Pacers into bendy buses

Pretty much, though they're not far off to begin with

 

[WatcherZero]

Its done abroad but not really much use for the current Pacers, they dont have enough life left in them to make it worthwhile.

 

[Class172]

I like the idea, but I agree, unless they're going to stay got more than 10 years, it's not worthwhile.

 

[185]

Riii-iii-iii-iiiiip .......and out fly the passengers onto the Atherton line

Pimp my Pacer? Naah. Turn em into tin cans and buy us some new ones

 

[Eng274]

This sounds uncannily similar to some form of lightweight european (bombardier?) dmu being discussed on another thread at the moment, where the middle bogie is spread between the 2 coaches à la eurostar. So an articulated pacer is possible, but as you mentioned the cost v benefit of doing this to a unit in its autumn years is not great.

 

[northernrail]

No point seen as theyl be gone by 2019, why couldnt the units have had bogies fitted 10 years or so ago

 

[142094]

The original reason for having an articulated bogie on the Metro was to save money on having to get an extra one! Plus it helps to get around the Manors curve.

Although you could possibly do it on a Pacer, sure the cost of adding a new bogie would probably be more than the Pacer is worth. Suppose it would be an interesting thing to have on any new stock built as the Pacer replacements.

 

[sprinterguy]

Yeah, there's not much chance that such an extensive conversion would ever be financially feasible with the predicted short remaining life span that Pacers have, but I thought that it was an interesting idea.

As 158>185 says, there's quite a few interesting lightweight DMUs for rural services on the continent that make use of articulation for quite short formations, and of course there's our own Tyne and Wear Metro, but articulation has never really caught on in a big way in British train designs (I know that the APT-E and APT-P used articulation, and Gresley was a big proponent of the design in both his suburban "Quad-art" sets and the Silver Jubilee (and I think the Coronation) streamliners).

 

[142094]

It's quite strange that the Metro took what was a continental design and brought it over here - quite revolutionary at the time. Although I have to say that you need every bit of the articulation when going around the Manors curve (feels like you are going to fall off when going around!).