tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post3919278558262084799..comments2024-03-28T23:57:50.103-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: I'd like to ride this train.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-37863801635940553962014-12-01T17:33:19.865-06:002014-12-01T17:33:19.865-06:00Remarkably enough, that speed has been exceeded by...Remarkably enough, that speed has been exceeded by a steel-wheeled French TGV train running on a regular-line track (albeit one carefully prepped):<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncPfzWILDJ8<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record<br /><br />Peak speed in that clip was 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph), putting down 26,800 hp to the wheels. The train made the run with a full complement of engineers aboard monitoring the test. In the video, note the Learjet flying chase. <br /><br />They do these high-speed runs every few years to push the envelope to see what is achievable, and the improvements are fed back into raising the regular in-service speeds.benEzranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-60390660073683214262014-11-30T20:11:00.015-06:002014-11-30T20:11:00.015-06:00This is the kind of thing that gives Jerry Brown w...This is the kind of thing that gives Jerry Brown wet dreams. <br /><br />AntibubbaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-38268926916566047052014-11-30T12:15:31.806-06:002014-11-30T12:15:31.806-06:00You wouldn't want to be leaning your head agai...You wouldn't want to be leaning your head against the window when two of them pass... Did that once on the Shinkansen and got the crap scared out of me!!! AND bounced my head to my other shoulder... :-)Old NFOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16404197287935017147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-58217286365348720052014-11-30T09:31:08.591-06:002014-11-30T09:31:08.591-06:00A lot of that was in tunnels, about the only way t...A lot of that was in tunnels, about the only way to ensure that some sort of foreign object(animal, thrown item tossed by a terrorist) won't lift this thing off the guide path and become airborne.<br /><br />The cost of the "rail" is astounding per mile - Endless numbers of highly engineered magnetic coils fed my miles and miles of wire, supplying a huge amount of electrical power, controlled by a massive computer system that must have redundancy in spades.<br /><br />Only a government can build and support these trains... and ours is broke and bankrupt. <br /><br />A ticket to ride would be quite costly.<br /><br />Other than an interesting science and engineering project, I see none of these trains running commercially for a long time... if ever. Bobnoreply@blogger.com