What is BS EN 17069‑1 - Railway track gauge systems about?
BS EN 17069 is a European standard on railway applications that discusses railway track gauge systems.
BS EN 17069‑1 is the first part of the BS EN 17069 series of documents that defines the interfaces and gives guidance for the design of systems and procedures for change of track gauge and also their assessment for technical approval, for the automatic variable gauge systems.
BS EN 17069‑1 focuses on the change of track gauge among the following nominal track gauges: 1 435 mm, 1 520 mm, 1 524 mm, 1 600 mm and 1 668 mm.
Note: BS EN 17069‑1 is not limited to the aforementioned nominal track gauges but the interfaces to change to/from other nominal track gauges can be different.
BS EN 17069‑1 on railway applications is applicable to:
In order to increase the comfort of passengers by avoiding transhipments, and to reduce both the risk of damaging goods and the involved cost of transferring them, several systems and procedures for change of track gauge have been developed.
BS EN 17069‑1 outlines the functionality of the track gauge system at the design stage, as well as its essential features (e.g. how forces are received and distributed) in order to provide an appropriate assessment methodology.
Variable-gauge systems, along with its associated systems and subsystems, follows the engineering process to ensure the same level of reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety as conventional running gear designed and validated in accordance with BS EN 17069‑1.
Furthermore, BS EN 17069‑1 lead you through the designing of railway track gauge that enables smooth, speedy, and efficient operation of trains.
In this way, automatic variable gauge systems allow railway vehicles to travel across a break of gauge caused by two railway networks with differing track gauges.
EN 17069-1:2019