Running gear of a railway vehicle

Running gear of a railway vehicle, whereby the running gear is suspended on the undercarriage of the railway vehicle by means of blade support springs having free ends from which depend suspension attachments which have lowermost ends connected to the vehicle to receive the vehicle load and transfer the same to said free ends of said springs, said suspension attachments permitting said car body to move at least longitudinally with respect to said running gear, said blade support springs each comprising at least one blade connected to the running gear by a central band intermediate said free ends, and in which, in addition to each blade support spring, an additional, prestressed blade spring is provided having at least one countersupport adjacent the undercarriage;

• characterized in that
• the additional blade spring is kinematically connected in parallel to the coordinated blade support spring as an absorption spring;
• that the absorption spring is a spring which is considerably more resilient with a considerably reduced spring rate relative to the blade support spring and on to which is imposed more than 25% of empty vehicle weight but not more than 25% of the maximum support load which can be absorbed in common by the blade support spring and the absorption spring;
• and that, the absorption spring is clamped into a spring band, which holds together both the blade support spring and the absorption spring, and said absorption spring supporting itself on the undercarriage with its free ends by means of slide elements which allow both longitudinal and lateral relative movement between the vehicle undercarriage and the absorption spring.