Train Aerodynamics

Chapter 1

Historical context

Abstract

This chapter gives the historical context of train aerodynamics. Developments up to 1930 are first considered, when various attempts were made to exploit aerodynamic concepts – such as the air piston-driven atmospheric railway, vacuum tube systems and airscrew-driven trains. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the first attempts were made to streamline trains to reduce aerodynamic drag and wind tunnel tests were first used. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, many of the current problems in train aerodynamics emerged – the aerodynamic behaviour of the pantograph; the effect of pressure waves in tunnels; pressure loads caused by passing trains; the effect of train slipstreams on waiting passengers and the risk of train ...