China's 270MPH Maglev Train.

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Lanley: "Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine bonafide electified six-car monorail! What'd I say?"
Flanders: "MONORAIL!"
Lanley: "What's it called?"
Patty/Selma: "Monorail."
Lanley: "That's right, MONORAIL!"
Crowd: "Monorail........monorail.......monorail.......monorail......."


:laugh:

i'm like the only person on earth who has yet to see taht episode

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: Rickten
i remember awhile ago reading about a proposed link between Socal and vegas.

There's still proposals for the NorCal SoCal link. There are privately funded ones being proposed as well as the govt funded one which supposedly will hit the ballot in 2008.

That would be amazing for me since my home is in SoCal, but I go to school up in Sacramento. Instead of the plane ticket, I could catch a train ticket and be home in 2 hours. That would be awesome.

 

[PepePeru]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Lanley: "Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine bonafide electified six-car monorail! What'd I say?"
Flanders: "MONORAIL!"
Lanley: "What's it called?"
Patty/Selma: "Monorail."
Lanley: "That's right, MONORAIL!"
Crowd: "Monorail........monorail.......monorail.......monorail......."


:laugh:

i'm like the only person on earth who has yet to see taht episode

that is one of the classics! conan o'brien wrote it.

anways in regards to the OP.

awesome vid. thanks for the link. i'd love to ride that.

i wish we could have something like that in the states.

 

[FreshPrince]

Unfortunately for the US, we are too entrenched in every aspect that such a technology would be decades away for us.

China and other countries have the liberty to implement much newer technological infrastructures because they've never had it before....

sigh...sux to be an American in the decades to come....

 

[Mr Pickles]

Great video. I'll throw one of those trains on teh Xmas list.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Aimster
who built that? china or they contracted the Germans?

China is very bullish, I would assume one of their companies performed the construction.


However, China does lack a lot of engineering talent, so it is possible they contracted with a western nation to do that part of the work. An alternative thought is it may be reverse engineered just like the Boeing derived jumbo jet they riped off and deny it's 99.5% resemblance to the Real McCoy..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Y-10

If they successfully reversed engineered it, then why did they buy a fleet of 707s?

They did as a political gesture when Bush sat down with some of China's leaders to discuss trade imbalance. I suppose they may also want to further reverse engineer the newer models?

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Lanley: "Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine bonafide electified six-car monorail! What'd I say?"
Flanders: "MONORAIL!"
Lanley: "What's it called?"
Patty/Selma: "Monorail."
Lanley: "That's right, MONORAIL!"
Crowd: "Monorail........monorail.......monorail.......monorail......."


:laugh:

i'm like the only person on earth who has yet to see taht episode

Geeze, I remember when it first aired 15-16 years ago and they have not stopped playing it since then.

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: Rickten
i remember awhile ago reading about a proposed link between Socal and vegas.

Adam Carolla has said they've been planning that since the late 70's...

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: jackace
there has been talk in the state of Washington to put a train similar to this one along I-90 and connect Spokane and Seattle.

in CA, they're talking about one between SF and LA, which would probably be a bit more useful since it's like 10 times the distance. but if they were really smart, they'd run a line from seattle through Portland and Sacramento to LA, with a branch to SF in the middle. 5 or 6 hours to do the entire coast in high comfort, and probably pretty cheap fares.

 

[Goosemaster]

neato.....

<----remembers a magnetic train set he got for his birthday.....it crashed and burned....

 

[sdifox]

Only problem is it serves no real purpose You would think for something that can top 270mph, they would have at least 270miles of
tracks for it... Going back to model propaganda cities are we?

30.5km...

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Lanley: "Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine bonafide electified six-car monorail! What'd I say?"
Flanders: "MONORAIL!"
Lanley: "What's it called?"
Patty/Selma: "Monorail."
Lanley: "That's right, MONORAIL!"
Crowd: "Monorail........monorail.......monorail.......monorail......."


:laugh:

i'm like the only person on earth who has yet to see taht episode

that episode of what now ?

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
I feel like we're living in the stone age here.

Have there been any major maglev crashes? What safety precautions are in place in case of "magnet failure" for the lack of a better term?

There are electromagnets in the track, and some permanent magnets in the train.

The electromagnets in the track propel the train - and as the train moves the permanent magnets levitate it (converting movement into lift). When the train stops it drops onto little wheels.

In the event of a power failure, the train will just coast to a stop - unless the driver activates a brake mechanism.

Because the track propels the trains, and the trains move in lock-step with the electronically controlled magnets if, somehow, 2 trains got onto the same piece of track - they would be propelled at exactly the same speed - so would not collide.

There has been 1 maglev crash in Germany. In this case, a diesel powered non-levitated maintenance train was left on the track. Track controllers had been told that it had been removed and let a maglev onto the same section, where it collided.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Lanley: "Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine bonafide electified six-car monorail! What'd I say?"
Flanders: "MONORAIL!"
Lanley: "What's it called?"
Patty/Selma: "Monorail."
Lanley: "That's right, MONORAIL!"
Crowd: "Monorail........monorail.......monorail.......monorail......."


:laugh:

i'm like the only person on earth who has yet to see taht episode

that episode of what now ?

I guess you have never played counterstrike, the whole Simpson's map was based on that one episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFTVoD8LD4g

 

[Googer]

Here is the cliff's version of that episode (highly edited for time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSO7F0Bdw8

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=monorail+simpsons

 

[Googer]

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/9F10.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_vs._the_Monorail

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Lanley: "Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine bonafide electified six-car monorail! What'd I say?"
Flanders: "MONORAIL!"
Lanley: "What's it called?"
Patty/Selma: "Monorail."
Lanley: "That's right, MONORAIL!"
Crowd: "Monorail........monorail.......monorail.......monorail......."


:laugh:

i'm like the only person on earth who has yet to see taht episode

that episode of what now ?

I guess you have never played counterstrike, the whole Simpson's map was based on that one episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFTVoD8LD4g

thx, i was a UT guy.

 

[DasFox]

Originally posted by: sdifox
Only problem is it serves no real purpose You would think for something that can top 270mph, they would have at least 270miles of
tracks for it... Going back to model propaganda cities are we?

30.5km...

No kidding it's only has a 30.5km track?

That's crazy...

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I know the German ICE 3 trains run up to 300 KMH (190 MPH) on certain stretches. That is the problem in Germany, finding space for long stretches of straight track.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterCityExpress

Those are great trains to ride, very roomy inside and electrical outlets!

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: DasFox

Originally posted by: sdifox
Only problem is it serves no real purpose You would think for something that can top 270mph, they would have at least 270miles of
tracks for it... Going back to model propaganda cities are we?

30.5km...

No kidding it's only has a 30.5km track?

That's crazy...

The track is being extended, but this is all they have running right now. The cost is about $7 from the airport. When I was in Shanghai, I was told this was made by a German firm.

 

[LongCoolMother]

I rode this when I was in shanghai several years ago. It's really awesome, though it isn't "super smooth" when it's traveling close to top speed. It wasn't bad at all, but it definitely isn't completely gliding along like it does at lower speeds. I guess it felt kind of like turbulence on a plane. LoL.

Anyway, I heard the limiting factor to the speed of the train is air resistance. They say they proposed building a vaccuum tube thing around the train tracks so that the train can accelerate in a vacuum. Leading to theoretically incredible speeds.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: sdifox
Only problem is it serves no real purpose You would think for something that can top 270mph, they would have at least 270miles of
tracks for it... Going back to model propaganda cities are we?

30.5km...

It does serve a purpose. Humans are looking for the next step in rapid people movers, and trains seem to be a likely candidate. While we have concepts and prototypes, we don't have the hard data that you'd get with regular usage.

Here we have an actual maglev train operating in full-time service. This will allow people to gather data on the design and make changes if they have to. It's a short track right now, but in the future they'll lengthen it.

Look at the other end of the spectrum... Amtrak has the Acela, but it can't even go its design speed because they don't feel like upgrading the track.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother


Anyway, I heard the limiting factor to the speed of the train is air resistance. They say they proposed building a vaccuum tube thing around the train tracks so that the train can accelerate in a vacuum. Leading to theoretically incredible speeds.

That would be completely impractical though.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: sdifox
Only problem is it serves no real purpose You would think for something that can top 270mph, they would have at least 270miles of
tracks for it... Going back to model propaganda cities are we?

30.5km...

It does serve a purpose. Humans are looking for the next step in rapid people movers, and trains seem to be a likely candidate. While we have concepts and prototypes, we don't have the hard data that you'd get with regular usage.

Here we have an actual maglev train operating in full-time service. This will allow people to gather data on the design and make changes if they have to. It's a short track right now, but in the future they'll lengthen it.

Look at the other end of the spectrum... Amtrak has the Acela, but it can't even go its design speed because they don't feel like upgrading the track.

problem is people need many stops. super fast train is only good for long journeys. meanining it'lll need a separate track from regular trains... its a suppliment to regular train service. might work with a population like china i guess, assuming its subsidized like hell.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Nyati13
The track looks like it's elevated above the ground quite a distance. So mammals should be impossible. Large birds.... I dunno, I bet it would be a huge mess on the nose of the train.

How about squirrels or other small critters like that? I know that they wouldn't stand a chance of derailing a regular train, but I don't know much about maglev trains.

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: Looney
Anyways, good video. Not too sure i would sit in one if it was 'Made in China' though.

If you saw my post above you would know that it's called TransRapid and it's "Made in Germany". Feel better?

And I'm sure the Chinese can make quality components. But when American buyers say, "Make it CHEAP, dammit!" then they have to cut corners to meet the pricing requirements.