Swiss variable gauge train switches from 1 000 mm to 1 435 mm gauge

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I wish more trains were like this!!

its like why wouldnt you just make them all the same width. this is some crazy engineering sh**

That is bang tidy

nu uh you don’t trains are not allowed to switch gauge

the swiss have this and america can't even fix the 100,000 high way bridges that are rotting away. USA is a shithole

Like a swiss watch

Here were my exact words just now. "Dude, that was awesome!"

Transformer in real life!

I like how the track is what actually does the work here! When the train hits that special track with the extra-high ties, the wheels raise up, and two metal plungers extend from those silver boxes in the middle. And a few seconds later, those plungers slip into special slots in the rails, which push the wheels apart as the train continues to move. Once they are fully pushed out, the wheels go back down and the plungers retract. And now the train is on the higher gauge track! This whole process then reverses when the train comes back in the other direction, and the wheels push themselves back together.

Edit: That whole process happens in EIGHT SECONDS. The Swiss aren’t just good for watches and utility knives…they make GENIUS stuff like this, too!

Can't they jusy make the rails the fucking same size ?!

I bet the test engineers had some interesting moments in the development of this idea, especially when they decide to ramp the speed up.

It is very expensive way. To set this devise on every wheel pair of cargo train...

Imagine showing this to a German logistics planner from 1942.

Or just make everything the same

wow thats really cool.

😮🤔

That is not a train. It is a line mentenance unit.

What the...

mm = millimeter ?

Coming to the UK in the year 3047

А это безопасно

Only the Swiss!

now thats hot

Lock S-foils into attack position.

Just more tech crap that WILL eventually fail.

Get in the robot Shinji

If that isn't cool, IDK what is XD

No matter how many times I replay it I'm still missing what actually happened, it's like a slight of hand or something 😮👍

It does not really look like 1m and 1,43m or is it just an optical illusion? 😅

Everything works in Switzerland

Wouldn't like to be on the train when it blows a hydraulic line Australia

"Robots in disguise."

I thought it was hydraulic rams that pushed the bogies apart. Not so. It appears it is a set of guided rollers that pop out underneath and follow the "expander inclined plane" tracks that pull them apart. Or maybe those are just force sensors to actuate the rams at the correct speed? Seems very complex.

Swiss Army Knife: "It's also a spoon".
Swiss Cheese: "It's also a sponge cloth."
Swiss Train: See above.
Swiss Gold: "We don't talk about that."

I love how fps is also increased

What did I just see... Seriously WOW.

Very impressive!!!!

So every truck on every car in that train does this?

holy shit why? seems like a lot of job security for a lot of mechanics fixing this stuff once it starts breaking.

We need this for the Sydney to Perth trips in Australia.

Sheldon just orgasmed!

That was super-tricky, wasn't it?

The Tango gauge change system system appears to me to be less likely to have problems. In that system, the train pulling through the change system causes the wheels to lift up on skids without hydraulics. The hydraulics mean there is something else to go wrong. It would be interesting to see the two compared. Since the Tango system was created in 1969, I wouldn't think there wouldn't be patent problems with copying it.

If this was in the US the trains would derail daily

Swiss engineering is a lot like germans, accurate and intelligent af, but always a hella lot more fancy 😅

That's 4 foot 8 1/2 inches.

There are Spanish trains those do similar gauge changes.

It looks to me yet another disaster waiting to happen...