Jacobs bogie

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Jacobs bogies (named after Wilhelm Jakobs (1858 - 1942)) are a type of rail vehicle bogie commonly found on articulated railcars and tramway vehicles.

Jacobs bogies are placed between two carbody sections, i.e. each carbody section puts its weight on one half of the Jacobs bogie. A disadvantage is that vehicles using Jacobs bogies may only be separated in the workshop.

Vehicles featuring Jacobs bogies are, as an example, the TGV, the Talent series of multiple units, the LINT41 or the Class 423 S-Bahn vehicle. In the United States, such configurations have been used throughout the 20th century, with some success on early streamlined passenger trainsets such as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Pioneer Zephyr and Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000. In Australia, such configurations were never used until the advent of the B class Melbourne tram in 1987 for the two converted suburban railways. To this day, the B class trams have remained the only articulated rail vehicles in the Southern Hemisphere with Jacobs bogies.

Intermodal freight trains, such as Pacer Stacktrains, use container flatcars groups of five connected with Jacobs bogies.

Some triple-bogied electric locomotives have an articulated loco body supported on the centre bogie, e.g. the NZR EW class. Most Bo-Bo-Bo electric locomotives though have a single loco body, with allowance for sideplay for the centre bogie.