How do international trains cope with the change of rail gauge at the Spanish/French frontier?

Question

How do international trains cope with the change of rail gauge at the Spanish/French frontier?

Answer 1

Gee.  I would have thought of getting off of one train and getting on the other.  Would have been a lot cheaper.

When I was in Australia some years back, they lifted the coaches and put different trucks under the car.  I would have though of getting off of one train and getting on the other.  Would have been a lot cheaper.

Answer 2

I'm looking forward to someone answering this in more detail. I travelled not too long ago, from Malaga to Cordoba and about 1 mile out of Cordoba, we switched from National Gauge to International Gauge, as the train was going on to Madrid. The only easy way that I could see to effect that change, was for the bogie hydraulics to be released, thence allowing the rails on the new gauge to adjust them to that width thorough a gradual narrowing/widening gauge of rail, after which the hydraulics would be applied again. Now I'm not saying that is what happened, only my thoughts but would love someone to give the detail.

Answer 3

The wheels are not rigidly attached to the axle, but are fastened to the bearing box.  When going through the transition device, special rails lift the bearing box, which slides along those rails, as the running rail drops away.  For a short period the bearing box is sliding on a transition rail which widens or narrows to place the bearing boxes such that the attached wheels are at the next gauge.  Then the wheels are at the new gauge, the new rails come up, and the rails under the bearing box drop away.    This keeps lateral forces off the wheel--to much of which will cause it to derail.

Answer 4

dey change boggies

Answer 5

http://www.railway-technology.com/contra...

Answer 6

They do the same thing at the Poland/Belarus boarder for trains from Germany to Moscow- the former USSR guage is about 5ft something if I remember rightly.

Answer 7

The main railway networks of Spain and Portugal were constructed to gauges of six Castilian feet (1672 mm) and five Portuguese feet (1664 mm). The two gauges were sufficiently close to allow inter-operation of trains, and in recent years they have both been adjusted to a common "Iberian gauge" (ancho ibérico in Spanish, bitola ibérica in Portuguese) of 1668 mm. Although it has been said that the main reason for the adoption of this non-standard gauge was to obstruct any invasion attempts coming from France, it was in fact a technical decision, to allow for the running of larger, more powerful locomotives in a mountainous country.

Since the beginning of the 1990s new high-speed passenger lines in Spain have been built to the international standard gauge of 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm), since it is intended that these lines will cross the French border and link to the European high-speed network. Although the 22 km from Tardienta to Huesca (part of a branch from the Madrid to Barcelona high-speed line) has been reconstructed as mixed Iberic and standard gauge, in general the interface between the two gauges in Spain is dealt with by means of gauge-changing installations, which can adjust the gauge of appropriately designed rolling stock on the move.