synonymouse Wrote:
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> Imperial BART has budged recently to the extent of
> dropping the Bechtelian cylindrical wheelset
> profile for tapered.
>
> Only took 40 years or until the Bechtelians had
> safely died off.
>
> The tiny clique running SMART is utterly
> cloistered - it will take a serious uprising to
> bring them to consider any changes. They are like
> Bechtel in the mid-sixties with the idiotic Indian
> Broad Gauge. And cylindrical tyres.
>
> You need to threaten them with repealing the sales
> tax.

As usual Mr. Mouse is wrong about his facts. The BART broad gauge track was the result of extensive research with wind tunnel tests that revealed it would give a better ride in the wind prevailing on most BART elevated track. Results of these experiments were published in trade journals if you would care to look them up, Mr. Mouse.

Bechtel originally specified taped tread wheels. Early BART cars had serious problems with truck hunting. You could even feel it when riding as a passenger. BART has some excellent mechanical engineers on staff. They devised a program to equip a car with television cameras and lights on a truck. Then they installed different tread wheels until they discovered which tread produced the least amount of hunting on all the different types of BART track. So the wheel tread used by BART was the result of BART engineers, not Bechtel. BTW Australian rail cars use a similar wheel profile as BART to reduce hunting problems. Again, all this information has been published.

So, Mr. Mouse, please stop boring us with your mis-information.