Overhangs are prone to swaying. A typical railcar is a “bogie car,” with the body supported by two bogies. Since the space between the bogie and the car body is rotatable, the direction of the bogie changes when passing through a curved section, allowing the train to pass smoothly. The bogie is not attached to the end of the car, but is slightly inward. The space between the bogie and the end of the car is called “overhang. In fact, this overhang is generally said to be the area where swaying tends to increase. In most cars, restrooms and washrooms are located in the overhang at the end of the car. This is for reasons such as efficient use of space inside the car and the need to install waste disposal equipment under the floor. What happens when this happens? Since the toilet and washroom are located in the overhang section, which is prone to swaying, they are likely to sway considerably while in use. This is probably more critical for men than for women. On the other hand, the center of the car tends to be relatively less bumpy than the ends. This is the reason why I chose to sit near the center of the car on the seat map. However, “relatively less shaking” does not mean no shaking at all.
Concatenated cars without overhangs Sometimes, there are cars without overhangs. To say that there are cars without overhangs is a bit of a misnomer; strictly speaking, they have no overhangs except at the front of the car. This is what is called an articulated car. This is a car with a bogie right under the coupling plane. However, only the two leading parts have overhangs. The interconnecting car was once famous for its frequent use by Odakyu Romance Cars, but recently there have been fewer examples of this type of car. Odakyu, for its part, no longer uses articulated cars after the retirement of the Type 50000 VSE cars. However, Nagano Electric Railway’s 1000 Series “Yukemuri,” which was introduced with used Odakyu Romance Cars, is still in service. Interconnecting cars have the advantage of physically not having overhangs, which are said to be prone to swaying. They are also said to be more stable at high speeds. On the other hand, they tend to require more maintenance work, such as difficulty in splitting up the train, and this is one of the reasons they are not widely used. In fact, articulated cars are still widely used in streetcars. However, streetcars do not go fast enough to make a difference in riding comfort depending on whether they have overhangs or not, so I will refrain from going into further details. The situation is similar to that of Enoshima Electric Railway.
© Source travel watch
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