GB2551183A

GB2551183A - Railway vehicle with front gangway

Info

Publication number: GB2551183A
Application number: GB1610098.4A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Naruo Ken; Koreishi Kazuto; Shibuya Seishi
Original assignee: Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd; Hitachi Ltd
Current assignee: Hitachi Rail Ltd; Hitachi Ltd
Priority date: 2016-06-09
Filing date: 2016-06-09
Publication date: 2017-12-13
Anticipated expiration: 2036-06-09
Also published as: GB2551183B; JP6377210B2; GB201610098D0; JP2018030567A

Abstract

A railway vehicle comprises a cab 1, with a drivers region and rear and front doorways, a front gangway 20 and a coupler (23 fig 8). The cab comprises movable panels including door 13 and wall 10, 11 panels. The panels have a stowed configuration in which the door panels close off the front doorway and the wall panels are stowed against the cab walls, and a deployed configuration in which the panels wall off a passenger corridor between the doorways and the drivers region is inaccessible to passengers in the corridor. The door panels may seal the front doorway to prevent wind, water and noise entering the cab. The panels may be hinged and may include a control panel 12 hinged to move between the drivers region and part of the corridor wall. The panels may be multi-folding. There may be a second mans region and both the drivers and second mans region may have escape doors 16, 17. The panels may include a slope flap 21 which, in the stowed configuration, may be stowed in the gangway behind the door panels and, in the deployed configuration, may be movable across the front doorway forming a slope.

Description

RAILWAY VEHICLE WITH FRONT GANGWAY

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a railway vehicle having a front cab and a front gangway forward of the cab.

Background

Railway vehicles for transporting passengers are commonly driven by a driver seated in a front cab of the vehicle. Such vehicles may also have a front gangway forward of the cab so that when two vehicles are joined cab-to-cab, passengers can pass through the joined vehicles via the cabs and their respective gangways. This enhances operational flexibility, allowing vehicles with cabs to be used both as front cars to a row of cars, and as mid-cars in such a row. A problem arises, however, that the driver’s region of the cab, and associated driver’s controls, must be protected from the passengers when they are passing through the cab-to-cab joined vehicles.

Summary

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a railway vehicle having: a cab located at the front of the vehicle, the cab having a driver’s region at one side thereof, a rear doorway to the rear thereof for access between the cab and the rear of the vehicle, and a front doorway; a front gangway forward of the cab and accessible from the cab through the front doorway; and a coupler located at the front of the vehicle for coupling the vehicle to a front of a corresponding vehicle such that the coupled vehicles are joined gangway-to-gangway; wherein the cab further has a set of movable panels including one or more door panels and one or more wall panels, the movable panels having a stowed configuration in which the door panels form a wall of the cab closing off the front doorway and the wall panels are stowed against respective walls of the cab, and a deployed configuration in which the door panels are opened into the cab and the wall panels are moved away from their walls such that the door panels and the wall panels wall-off a passenger corridor extending from the rear doorway to the front doorway, the driver’s region thereby being made inaccessible to passengers moving along the corridor and through the front doorway en route from or to the joined gangways.

Advantageously, by providing a door panel(s) that closes off the front doorway in the stowed configuration, but also opens into the cab to play a role in walling-off the passenger corridor in the deployed configuration, the total number of movable panels required can be reduced.

In some vehicles, the cab is separately manufacturable and installable from the rest of the vehicle. Thus, in a further aspect, the present invention provides the cab of the railway vehicle of the first aspect.

Optional features of the invention will now be set out. These are applicable singly or in any combination with any aspect of the invention.

Typically, the front gangway is an enclosed gangway and has a door or doors to the exterior at a forward end thereof, the door or doors being opened when the coupled vehicles are joined gangway-to-gangway. For example, the gangway can be enclosed in a bellows structure.

Conveniently, the, or each, door panel may be hinged about a side edge thereof, and may swing about its hinged side edge between the stowed and the deployed configurations.

Conveniently, the movable panels include just a single door panel to close off the front doorway in the stowed configuration. Relative to e.g. two door panels on opposite sides of the front doorway with a centre meeting line, the single door panel can better seal the front doorway in the stowed configuration, thereby preventing wind and water ingress into the cab and reducing noise transmission through the front doorway. For example, the door panel may be hinged about its side edge to a wall of the cab at one side of the front doorway, and the movable panels may further include a control panel hinged about a side edge thereof to another wall of the cab at the other side of the front doorway, the control panel carrying driver’s controls on a face thereof, in the stowed configuration the control panel being angled to present the driver’s controls to the driver’s region, and in the deployed configuration the control panel being swingable about its hinged edge to wall-off the passenger corridor with the face of the control panel carrying the driver’s controls being outside the corridor. In this way, the door panel and the control panel can wall-off opposite sides of the corridor. The angled position of the control panel in the stowed configuration can also allow sufficient side-to-side passage at the front of the cab. This can enable access across the cab for a driver on one side of the cab to e.g. an escape door on the opposite side of the cab, and vice versa for a secondman on the other side of the cab.

Conveniently, one or more of the wall panels may be hinged about side edges thereof to respective walls rearwards of the driver’s region to be stowed against the rearward walls in the stowed configuration and to be swingable about their hinged edges into the deployed configuration. In such an arrangement, at least one of the wall panels hinged to a rearward wall may be a multi-folding panel, such as a bi-folding panel.

The cab may have a secondman’s region at the opposite side of the cab to the driver’s region. Accordingly, in the deployed configuration the movable panels may wall-off the corridor such that the secondman’s region is also made inaccessible to persons moving along the corridor.

Typically, the cab has a side escape door from the driver’s region to the exterior of the vehicle. When the cab has a secondman’s region, it may also have a side escape door from the secondman’s region to the exterior of the vehicle. A driver’s seat in the driver’s region and a secondman’s seat in the secondman’s region may be at substantially the same forward position in the vehicle. This can improve communication between the driver and the secondman. In addition, the secondman’s sightlines out of the cab can be similar to those of the driver. The secondman’s seat may be movable in the cab, e.g. to allow forwards and backwards movement and/or to allow rotation (although the rest or default position of the secondman’s seat may be at the same forward position in the vehicle as the driver’s seat and with any rotation removed), thereby allowing the secondman to have different views of the driver’s region and in particular allowing the secondman to better observe the driver’s controls. This can be beneficial when the secondman is in a training or learning role.

The movable panels may further include a slope flap, in the stowed configuration the slope flap being stowed in the gangway behind the one or more door panels, and in the deployed configuration the slope flap being movable across a bottom edge of the front doorway to form a slope from the floor of the corridor to the floor of the gangway. For example, the slope flap may be pivotably movable about a hinge line extending along the bottom edge of the front doorway. By stowing the slope flap behind the one or more door panels, the sealing performance of the inwardly opening door panel(s) can be improved, as the slope flap can be prevented from interfering with perimeter seals of the front doorway. Indeed, if the slope flap were stowed in the cab in front of the door panel(s), the panel(s) might have to be adapted in a way that would reduce its sealing effectiveness (e.g. by introducing a gap between the bottom of the panel(s) and the bottom of the front doorway) in order to enable the panel(s) to pass over the slope flap. Also, the slope flap stowed behind the door panel(s) does not cause an obstruction in the cab during normal usage. Indeed, more generally it is preferable that the entire floor area of the cab is flat in the stowed configuration.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 shows a schematic plan view of a cab of a railway vehicle with movable panels of the cab in a stowed configuration;

Figure 2 shows a schematic plan view of the cab with the movable panels in a deployed configuration;

Figure 3 shows a schematic side view of the cab along section A-A of Figure 1;

Figure 4 shows a schematic side view of the cab along section B-B of Figure 2;

Figure 5 shows a schematic side view of the cab along section C-C of Figure 1;

Figure 6 shows a schematic side view of the cab along section D-D of Figure 2;

Figure 7 shows a schematic plan view of the cabs of two coupled vehicles joined gangway-to-gangway with the movable panels in the deployed configuration; and

Figure 8 shows a schematic side view of the joined cabs along section E-E of Figure 8.

Detailed Description and Further Optional Features

When the driver’s cab ends of two railway vehicles are coupled together and joined at respective front gangways from the cabs, a corridor can be created in each cab for the movement of passengers from one cab to another through the gangways. For safety, however, this corridor should be configured so as to prevent passengers from entering the driver’s region (and secondman’s region if present) and touching equipment in that region(s).

Figures 1 and 2 show schematic plan views of a cab 1 of a railway vehicle, the cab having movable panels which are movable from a stowed configuration (Figure 1) to a deployed configuration (Figure 2) to wall-off a passenger corridor extending from a rear doorway of the cab to a front doorway of the cab. Further schematic views of the cab show: in Figure 3 a side view along section A-A of Figure 1; in Figure 4 a side view along section B-B of Figure 2; in Figure 5 a side view along section C-C of Figure 1; and in Figure 6 a side view along section D-D of Figure 2.

The cab 1 has a front gangway 20 forward of the cab and accessible from the cab through a front doorway. The gangway can, for example, be enclosed in a bellows structure. The gangway can have a door or doors (not shown) to the exterior at its front end (i.e. the end distal from the cab). Figure 7 shows a schematic plan view of the cabs of two such coupled vehicles joined gangway-to-gangway with the movable panels in the deployed configuration, and Figure 8 shows a schematic side view of the joined cabs along section E-E of Figure 8, the vehicles having respective front couplers 23 below the gangways.

The cab 1 has a driver’s region at the left side including a driver’s seat 14 and a left side escape door 16 from the driver’s region, and a secondman’s region at the right side including a secondman’s seat 15 and a right side escape door 17 from the secondman’s region. Advantageously, the two seats are at the same forward position in the cab. This improves communication between the driver and the secondman, who are thus positioned side-by-side in their seats. Also, the sightlines out of the cab experienced by the driver and the secondman are similar. However, the secondman’s seat may be moveable in the cab, e.g. backwardly and forwardly movable and/or rotatable.

The cab also has a set of movable panels. These include a single door panel 13 which in the stowed configuration (see Figure 1) forms a wall of the cab to close off the front doorway through which the front gangway is accessible, first 10 and second 11 wall panels which in the stowed configuration (also see Figure 1) are stowed flat against respective walls of the cab, and a control panel 12 which in the stowed configuration is angled towards the driver’s region. The door panel is hinged about one of its side edges to a wall of the cab at the right side of the front doorway. The first wall panel is hinged about one of its side edges to a wall of the cab behind the driver’s seat 14 and is stowed against that wall, the second wall panel (which is of bi-folding type) is hinged about one of its side edges to a wall of the cab behind the secondman’s seat and is folded up and stowed against that wall, and the control panel is hinged about one of its side edges to a wall of the cab at the left side of the front doorway.

The control panel carries some of the driver’s controls on the face which it presents to the driver. The walls behind the driver’s and secondman’s seats may be walls respectively enclosing left side and right side electrical apparatus cubicles. Providing one or more of the movable panels as a multi-folding type can help such a panel to span a large distance on deployment without interfering with other moveable panels or fixed parts of the cab. A passenger part of the vehicle provided with passenger seats 18 is located behind the cab 1, access between the passenger part of the vehicle and the cab being regulated by sliding doors 19 at a rear doorway to the cab.

To move the panels 10-13 into the deployed configuration (Figure 2), firstly the control panel 12 is swung on its hinges to partly wall-off the driver’s region of the cab 1. This more fully reveals the door panel 13, which is then swung on its hinges to partly wall-off the secondman’s region of the cab. At the rear, the first 10 and second 11 wall panels are also swung out (the bi-folding second wall panel simultaneously being unfolded) to meet respectively the control panel and door panel and thereby complete the walling-off of the driver’s and secondman’s regions. More particularly, a corridor is created from the rear doorway to the front doorway, with the driver’s region and the secondman’s region being made inaccessible to passengers moving along the corridor. Conveniently also, the driver's controls carried by the control panel 12 are safely located behind the left hand wall of the corridor in the driver’s region. The transition from an open cab to a walled-off corridor is illustrated by Figures 3 and 4.

Thus when two such cabs 1 are joined gangway-to-gangway and their movable panels ΙΟΙ 3 are deployed to wall off their respective corridors, passengers moving along the corridors and through the front doorways en route from or to the joined gangways 20 are thus prevented from interfering with the driver’s and second man’s regions of the cabs, and particularly the driver’s controls.

Having the door panel 13 swing into the cab 1 advantageously allows that panel to play a part in walling-off the corridor as well as closing off the front doorway, i.e. it can be a dual-purpose element of the cab. In addition, however, being a single panel, the door panel can form a seal just around the perimeter of the front doorway in the stowed configuration, thereby preventing wind and water ingress and reducing noise transmission into the cab through the front doorway. This is particularly advantageous in high speed trains which have greater risks of wind, water and noise ingress. If e.g. two door panels at opposite sides of the front doorway were used instead, a further seal would be needed at the centre meeting line of the panels, which could compromise sealing effectiveness.

In the stowed configuration the movable panels at the front end of the cab 1 (door panel 13 and control panel 12) enable sufficient passage side-to-side to allow the driver, if necessary, to access the right side escape door 17, and the secondman, if necessary, to access the left side escape door 16. This improves safety in the cab. More particularly, although the control panel is angled towards the driver and thus projects to an extent into the cab, the control panel can be arranged such that its projection does not block this side-to-side passage. Also the projection can still allow a line of sight between the driver and secondman for enhanced communication therebetween.

Particularly when the front coupler 23 has both mechanical and electrical coupling components, the coupler can be bulky. Accordingly, to make room for the front coupler 23 (see Figure 8) below the front gangway 20, the floor level of the front gangway may be higher than the floor level 22 of the cab 1. Accordingly, the cab’s movable panels can also include a slope flap 21 which in the stowed configuration (Figure 5) is stowed behind the door panel 13, where it does not form a trip hazard to the driver and secondman. Indeed, advantageously the entire floor area of the cab can be flat and without trip hazards in the stowed configuration. Another advantage of stowing the slope flap behind the door panel is that it does not then interfere with the sealing of the inward swinging door panel to the perimeter of the front doorway. Indeed, the slope flap when stowed can contribute to the sealing of the door panel to the perimeter of the front doorway. Conveniently, the slope flap can be pivotably movable about a hinge line extending along the bottom edge of the front doorway. To move the flap into the deployed configuration (Figure 6), the flap is simply pivoted about that line after deployment of the door panel and third wall panel 12, the flap thereby forming a ramp leading from the floor of the cab up to the floor of the gangway.

While the invention has been described in conjunction with the exemplary embodiments described above, many equivalent modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art when given this disclosure. Accordingly, the exemplary embodiments of the invention set forth above are considered to be illustrative and not limiting. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A railway vehicle having: a cab located at the front of the vehicle, the cab having a driver’s region at one side thereof, a rear doorway to the rear thereof for access between the cab and the rear of the vehicle, and a front doorway; a front gangway forward of the cab and accessible from the cab through the front doorway; and a coupler located at the front of the vehicle for coupling the vehicle to a front of a corresponding vehicle such that the coupled vehicles are joined gangway-to-gangway; wherein the cab further has a set of movable panels including one or more door panels and one or more wall panels, the movable panels having a stowed configuration in which the door panels form a wall of the cab closing off the front doorway and the wall panels are stowed against respective walls of the cab, and a deployed configuration in which the door panels are opened into the cab and the wall panels are moved away from their walls such that the door panels and the wall panels wall-off a passenger corridor extending from the rear doorway to the front doorway, the driver’s region thereby being made inaccessible to passengers moving along the corridor and through the front doorway en route from or to the joined gangways.

2. A railway vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the door panel(s) seals to the perimeter of the front doorway in the stowed configuration preventing wind and water ingress and reducing noise transmission into the cab through the front doorway.

3. A railway vehicle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the, or each, door panel is hinged about a side edge thereof, and swings about its hinged side edge between the stowed and the deployed configurations.

4. A railway vehicle according to any one of the previous claims, wherein the movable panels include just a single door panel to close off the front doorway in the stowed configuration.

5. A railway vehicle according to claim 4, wherein: the door panel is hinged about its side edge to a wall of the cab at one side of the front doorway; and the movable panels further include a control panel hinged about a side edge thereof to another wall of the cab at the other side of the front doorway, the control panel carrying driver’s controls on a face thereof, in the stowed configuration the control panel being angled to present the driver’s controls to the driver’s region, and in the deployed configuration the control panel being swingable about its hinged edge to wall-off the passenger corridor with the face of the control panel carrying the driver’s controls being outside the corridor.

6. A railway vehicle according to any one of the previous claims, wherein: one or more of the wall panels are hinged about side edges thereof to respective walls rearwards of the driver’s region to be stowed against the rearward walls in the stowed configuration and to be swingable about their hinged edges into the deployed configuration.

7. A railway vehicle according to claim 6, wherein at least one of the wall panels hinged to a rearward wall is a multi-folding panel.

8. A railway vehicle according to any one of the previous claims, wherein the cab has a side escape door from the driver’s region to the exterior of the vehicle.

9. A railway vehicle according to any one of the previous claims, wherein the cab has a secondman’s region at the opposite side of the cab to the driver’s region, and in the deployed configuration the movable panels wall-off the corridor such that the secondman’s sat region is also made inaccessible to persons moving along the corridor.

10. A railway vehicle according to claim 9, wherein the cab has a side escape door from the secondman’s region to the exterior of the vehicle.

11. A railway vehicle according to claim 9 or 10, wherein a driver’s seat of the driver’s region and a secondman’s seat of the secondman’s region are at substantially the same forward position in the vehicle.

12. A railway vehicle according to any one of the previous claims, wherein the movable panels further include a slope flap, in the stowed configuration the slope flap being stowed in the gangway behind the one or more door panels, and in the deployed configuration the slope flap being movable across a bottom edge of the front doorway to form a slope from the floor of the corridor to the floor of the gangway.

13. A railway vehicle according to claim 12, wherein the slope flap is pivotably movable about a hinge line extending along the bottom edge of the front doorway.

14. A railway vehicle according to any one of the previous claims, wherein the entire floor area of the cab is flat in the stowed configuration.

15. The cab of the railway vehicle according to any one of the previous claims.