Does the Eurostar have any defence against birdstrikes etc.?

Question

When a train hits a bird or other animal at 100 mph, it makes a h**l of a bang, sometimes damaging the lights cover or windscreen wiper.

Considering the Eurostar now reaches 186 mph in England, is there any mechanism to minimise damage to the train in such an event? Has this been worked out in the design stage?

Answer 1

I think you have trains confused with airplanes ;)  Trains have to contend with bigger animals than birds - some of them with 4 hooves, and some with 4 tyres!

In the U.S., glass is bulletproof and will stop a corner hit from a cinder block, it will certainly stop a bird, defrosted or not. This requirement is outlined in US law, 49 CFR 223.  One common material for this is .460" (about 12mm) polycarbonate.  Plainly animal strikes do not delay U.S. railroads, or our entire system would grind to a halt!

Answer 2

Birdstrikes happen more times than you think on the railway, especially in rural areas, however most of them are made by ground birds like pheasants, doves, wood pidgeons, etc, quite often you will see units on the rails especially those with exposed couplings with bits of birds on them.

The windscreens however on trains are mainly the same, toughened glass. If a strike does happen as long as the glass is not totaly smashed and the driver is ok then the train will be able to travel at reduced speed to a safe location to stop and inspect damage.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

It's the same.

Bombay (Bumbay) and Mumbai ...it's the same too..

Answer 4

Are you one of those trainspotters or what?

Answer 5

The front of The eurostar trains is made from re-enforced fiberglass with a steel frame and cab protector behind.

The angle of the front nose section acts in the same way as the outer of a battle tank giving a bigger area to the strike than a "full on" strike area,even a large bird like a swan will hit and slide off only cracking the nose area.

The front window glass is laminated toughened glass and I was once told by a train preparer that they would stop a shotgun round from close up.

Answer 6

Yes, they tested it using a canon designed by NASA...which fired a chicken at the windscreen...to their horror it kept breaking when hit even at reasonably low speeds....they eventually sent the results to the designers, who came back with the answer....defrost the chicken.

Answer 7

Occasionally there is damage to the items on the front of a train that are of light weight construction, such as light covers etc, other than that "Bird strikes" don't tend to cause any damage to the front of a train, as for damaging the windscreen wipers, i've seen them bend once or twice, but never be totally destroyed. The chances of the/any bird hitting the wipers is quite low. Basicly there arnt' any birds big or heavy enough to cause damage to any train in the UK or Mainland Europe. On impact they tend to explode into a puff of feathers and mush.

Answer 8

Page three girls taking industrial action?

How would that affect the eurostar?

Sorry, joking aside...

Birdstrikes in the aviation industry tend only to be a major problem when the bird strikes anywhere around the engines.

Canopy's and windscreens are generally suitably reinforced against birdstrikes. At worst, the glass or perspex will crack but penetrations are rare.

I'd imagine the windscreens on the eurostar have been designed using similar technology.

Answer 9

I used to work for BR and have travelled in loco and passenger stock drivers cabs on many occasions,,although they were never doing more than 90mph on long straight sections I do remember a particular occasion when we hit a flock of sparrows and the noise was like a muted machine gun going off as they hit the front of the cab,,,and I remember one train being taken out of service when a duck went through the windscreen of a loco but this was a very very rare event,,

although tests would have been carried out as to the impact strengths of the glass it was found that at very high speed the airflow over a shaped surface such as the Japanese Bullet train and the express trains on France`s TGV super trains was such that anything travelling directly towards the windscreen would be carried by the air flow up and over the windscreen and dissipating in the turbulence a little way back from the front of the cab,,at  lower speeds the strength of the windscreen would be enough to stop any impact penetration..this design was then adopted and refined for the Eurostar trains,,,,