Road–rail vehicle
Vehicle capable of travelling on roads and railway tracks / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A road–rail vehicle or a rail–road vehicle is a dual-mode vehicle which can operate both on rail tracks and roads.[1][2] They are also known as two-way vehicles (German: Zweiwegefahrzeug),[3] hi-rail (from highway and railway, or variations such as high-rail, HiRail, Hy-rail[failed verification]),[4] and rail and road vehicles.[5]
They are often converted road vehicles, keeping their normal wheels with rubber tires, but fitted with additional flanged steel wheels for running on rails. Propulsion is typically through the conventional tires, the flanged wheels being free-rolling, used to keep the vehicle on the rails; the rail wheels are raised and lowered as needed. There are also purpose-built road–rail vehicles. In case of jeep trains, road wheels are directly replaced with railway wheels. Vehicles with tires need special areas like level crossings to change modes. A vehicle on caterpillar tracks rather than road wheels, which allows mode change anywhere without the need to use a level crossing, has been proposed and modelled by Chinese engineers.[6]