EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Q. Why are curved railway tracks banked?

A. The outer part of a railway track near the bend or a curve is generally raised, i.e., the outer track of the bend is slightly higher than the inner. This is known as banking of the rails or tracks. When a fast moving train takes a curved path, it tends to move away tangentially off the track. In order to prevent this, the curved tracks are banked on the outside to produce the necessary centripetal force required to keep the train moving in a curved path. If there is no banking of the track, this centripetal force that is obtained from the friction between the rim of the wheels and rails which is generally small may cause the train to jump off the rails.