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Recliner[_3_] · October 30th 14, 02:30 PM posted to uk.transport.london

Neil Williams wrote:
On 2014-10-30 12:03:45 +0000, d said:

Aluminium isn't quite the panacea people seem to think. You can get some
serious galvanic corrosion issues if you join it to steel. I'm not sure how
they get around the problem but its always there waiting to appear.

Old Land Rovers are the classic example. I wonder will we see composites
in trains any time soon? I know there are/were Hungarian coaches made of
fibreglass, but I guess those wouldn't meet UK crashworthiness rules.

We've had fibreglass on trains in non-structural panels for decades, such
as HST and newer nose cones or some internal panels. That's the same as
road cars, where GRP is always non-structural. Of course, a few very
expensive sports cars have carbon fibre tubs, like F1 cars, but that's for
extreme weight saving, which isn't really needed in trains.