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luckydog1 -> RE: MagLev is just so cool... (3/13/2008 12:48:06 AM)
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Thompson, buddy, relax....First of all I have never said in anyway it would not work. It's of course technically feasible. Why are saying I am whining. I asked a few serious questions about how much power they use and the complexity of the system. Why being asked basic questions about something you are advocating irritates you is not really my concern. I find this subject fascinating, and want to talk about it.
Seriously if you are advocating something you should be able to give reasons for it.
Your comparison with ox carts makes no sense at all. Going from animal power to large scale fixed track hualing is totally different than going from one kind of train to another. A reasonable comparison would be going from an ox to a team of clydesdales. Which is a little better but not much, and they are tempermental and expensive.
I looked around on the Web at this stuff. It is very interesting. Absolutly no one is proposing replacing the regular train system with a national network of these things. They are not designed for hualing massive freight. You lose all the advantages (being silent is deadly when travelling on ground level) of having a maglev. And it has to be on the ground if it is carrying heavy weight. Also the frictionless aspect becomes a problem when you want to stop, if you are hauling 10 million pounds of Iron ore at 300-500 MPH. And the power consumption goes up dramatically. You could design it for freight, but why? We already have a national rail system. What benefit is there to hualing freight that fast?
I have seen several diferent proposals discussed on this thread. All the way up to hyper sonic trans ocainic or to outer space. You act like I am attacking your proposal, I haven't seen a concrete plan from you. The trains do have to slow down to go through the switches. If you claim there is a 300-500 mph switch, show me. I found one that is under development that claims a 300, but in actuall use it would have to be slower (most were in the mid to low 100s).
I looked up power consumption, and lots of sites compared them to cars, which is a no brainer. None wanted to put them against a modern locomotive.
Electro magnets are not paticularly complicated. Mobile cyrogenic superconducting magnets are.
While it is true that not every medivac flight needs cleared airspace, some do. It's not just on TV. Air travel also provides a huge amount of flexibility in use for all kind of uses. Planes can be diverted or put in holding patterns. It happens all the time. You can't do that with a train. You have to stop them and untangle it.
Managing the air traffic system is complicated enough. Managing a national sytem of 500 MPH trains with launching and de coupling cars would be far more complicated. Making a switch like that is technically feasible (well almost at 300). Operating a system with 50,000 of them is kind of complicated, and I see no reason to think it would operate without Human, Mechanical, or Software error...nothing else does.
I have not seen any compelling reason to replace a single existing mile of train track. There is nothing personal about this thompson.
Several people have opined that they are better than Air travell. I don't think so. There are a places where a train shuttle makes sense. I have ridden Amtrack from Virginia to DC or on to NYC more times than I can count, its great. Why does it need to be faster? other than to be cool? I have travelled from Coast to Coast on Railroads, on Amtrack, on Grey hound, by Air, and by Automobile. Automobile is by far the best, if you have time. And Air is the best if you have to go fast. No rocket train would get me from Fairbanks to DC in 19 hours. I can think of 200 better uses for the capital than replacing existing Railroads because they are neat and the wave of the future. There is one being built in Florida. A shuttle to take tourists from cruise ships to Cape Canaveral. I think its a great idea. Down the line these might make great light rail transport systems--Silent, if you put them up on elevated Monorails you get a small footprint, with low wieght and speeds(commuting people) they are pretty energy efficient.
My personal feeling on these is that they are a dead end. Sort of like a dirigible, they worked, but over all were kind of useless, mainly for status. Technology will soon give us a practical anti gravity device, and that will be incredibly usefull for all kinds of things. That kind of levitating power would replace the Train and Auto and Airplane. I imagine then people will look back at a mag lev and just think it was silly, sort of like a betamax or an 8 track.
I would be in favor of a system like they have in Shanghai being put into some larger cities. I wish we could do it in mine. Close the Airport and put it 150 miles away from the city. Then build a rocket shuttle that can go straight there at 400 MPH. Don't let anyone drive to the Airport at all. But that is far different than replacing Air and existing rail travell, with a never stopping launch and de coupling system.
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