Safety wheel addition

The current design of the boggie is lacking of safety features that would keep the boggie on the track during a failure on the main wheels or switching system. I was brainstorming some ideas on a simple “fail safe” mechanism to prevent the boggie from falling from the tracks in case that one of the main wheels fails. My idea is to add a safety wheel of smaller size between both main wheels on each side of the boggie. This extra wheel would be positioned slightly above the rail so it won’t be in contact with it during regular operation. If one of the main wheels falls from the boggie the weight will rest over the safety wheel. The advantage of having the safety wheel slightly above of the track is that the change in altitude of the whole boggie would be minimum keeping the guiding wheels attached to the rails and avoiding the boggie from tilting and falling off the tracks. Another advantage of having this safety wheel is that it will allow the boggie to be moved easily to the nearest station to unload the passengers and clear the tracks.

I think the safety wheel should be made of a hard rubber which would be able to hold the weight of the boggie while also absorbing the force of impact between it and the track. (Figure took and modified from Spartan Superway 2014-2015 Report).