Drive unit for a rail vehicle

In a drive unit mounted on a frame of a rail vehicle having at least one wheel-set axle, said drive unit including a motor-gearing unit supported on said at least one wheel-set axle, said motor-gearing unit having a drive motor with an output shaft and at least one gear unit with an input shaft which is coupled with said output shaft of said drive motor, said gear unit having an output shaft in the form of a hollow drive shaft which substantially concentrically surrounds said wheel-set axle, and elastic torque transmitting coupling means for coupling said hollow drive shaft to said wheel-set axle, the improvement comprising wherein elastic bearing means separate from said elastic torque transmitting coupling means are provided between said hollow drive shaft and said wheel-set axle for transmitting a weight force of said motor-gearing unit to said wheel-set axle while simultaneously facilitating a relative inclination between an axis of said wheel-set axle and an axis of said hollow drive shaft, said elastic bearing means being spaced along the length of said wheel-set axle from said elastic torque transmitting coupling means, and wherein guide lever means are provided between said frame and said motor-gearing unit for providing further support for said motor-gearing unit in a substantially horizontal direction laterally of the longitudinal axis of said rail vehicle to counter massacceleration forces, torque and tilting moments acting on said motor-gearing unit and thereby restrict the application of force, other than said weight force, on said elastic bearing means.