h a l f b a k e r yFaster than a stationary bullet.
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The distance between these two suburban towns is 26 miles.
200 miles per hour into 26 miles equals .13 hour or 7.8 minutes.
Will train even reach top speed ? How long will it take to plane and deplane ? What sort of vending machines will be there ?
Will it cause a real estate boom ? Will local
freight will be faster or delayed during construction and after ?
26 miles at 80 mph on the freeway beside it will take about half an hour.
I think there should be collectable buttons, t shirts, and coffee mugs. For this daring jump in front of the train of the future.
All the way to the year 2000 and beyond.
(marked for deletion - Thought there was an idea in there somewhere, but it hasn't shown up yet.)
Hydrogen_20Tunnel
[FlyingToaster, Jan 05 2015]
Law, costs, politics, etc
https://www.youtube...watch?v=bXZ7E475DY4
A detailed Video about the project. [popbottle, Apr 20 2015]
http://ecowatch.com...16/solar-bike-lane/
Why not build this instead? [xenzag, Apr 20 2015]
[link]
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"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money." |
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A test track for new superconductors? in between public trips. |
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A test section ? Maybe somewhere between LA and San Fran projected full route. This Fresno stretch is flat, but there are irrigation canals nearby. If there is any chance of flooding, I doubt you could get insurance for a test bed at a reasonable rate for this stretch. |
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I vaguely recall talking about this (a train between LA and SF ?)... hydrogen tunnel, maybe; just leave enough room so that the train doesn't get into ground effect with the walls, and you've effectively vacuum tunnel efficiency. After a couple months of idiots failing to blow it up by shooting at it, maintenance would be minimal. Interior materials should be non h-brittleable of course, and an outer sheath to collect the seeped hydrogen would probably be a good idea as well, though semi-superfluous. |
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Tell everyone to stop being pussies, install sturdy
seats, and allow for some real acceleration (with a
magnetic propulsion system similar to a coil gun).
Install an aerospike for shockwave attenuation and
heat shielding. No walking around the train during
the trip. Turn the
seats around for decel. You should be able to cover
that distance in just under a minute without killing
anyone except the frail and elderly. |
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I liked /without killing anyone in good health/ better. Because the converse of course is that any deaths were destined to happen soon anyway. |
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There is no good reason I can think of not to install something like MAST trousers on the seats. These would clamshell closed and push some blood back to your head after about the third minute. |
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Hang on. Hang on just a moment. |
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There are already plenty of trains operating at
200mph. |
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So, given that this is meant to be a sort of test case,
would the US not do better to aim a little higher? |
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Add a teacher. Have the worlds fastest classroom. |
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// would the US not do better to aim a little
higher // |
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No, that would be cost prohibitive in the USA.
Typically, with such a project, 90% of the budget it
spent on lawyers and other efforts to get the
project approved. Now one might think that in
such a case, an additional 10% to double the actual
construction budget would be money well spent,
but part of the reason they are even allowed to do
anything is that 20% of the total budget is spent
demonstrating that the project is being done in
the most cost effective manner possible. Also,
since they always use the low bidder, the system
must be completely engineered to avoid the
possibility of failure, so no innovation is possible
on such projects. While all this may seem a bit
ridiculous to those on the outside, it ensures that
once a project is kicked off, it will run smoothly to
completion without going over budget: for
example, the Big Dig in Boston, the Seattle
Monorail project, and the Seattle Alaskan Way
Viaduct replacement tunnel. |
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//the Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement
tunnel.// Yes, but don't the mules panic in the dark? |
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That's why they used Bertha instead of mules.
When the lights go out, it just stops. (Although
restarting would have been a nice feature as well.) |
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I've said it before. To get a train to go really fast, eliminate the friction of wheels and thick atmosphere at sea level and power it with jet engines. |
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Then eliminate the track so you can travel over mountains, cities, the ocean whatever, in fact, you can even change direction any time you want to. |
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We've solved the problem of not getting there fast enough. We don't need to try to supercharge an old idea just because it's romantic. I'm sure with a little engineering we could design a horse drawn carriage that would go 100 miles per hour. |
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Wait, let me think about that one... |
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//horse drawn carriage// One of my favourite
cartoons consisted of a couple of daubs, a hoofprint
and a bite mark; it was captioned "horse-drawn
carriage". |
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I searched for "bullet train" and "high speed train" in the entire
Fresno and Madera Craigslist. Just got single hit from a Dale Carnegie guy flogging local real estate. |
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They obviously don't want any local help building this thing. I Wonder who THEY is. And where THEY are located ? |
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//One of my favourite cartoons consisted of a couple of
daubs, a hoofprint and a bite mark; it was captioned "horse-
drawn carriage"// |
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Sounds like an unsophisticated, preliminary effort. Was it a
First-draught horse? |
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Rein your elves in guys - this is not a forum for horse puns. Once you take that tack people will be bridling about lists, and they'll trot out the help file. |
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I want to move back to SF so I can ride the really fast train.
(Then I'll move back to this piece of shit town right after.) |
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According to Wikipedia, the last time the US held a
speed record for trains was in 1934 (104mph). |
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The current record for a proper train is 375mph
(Japan). |
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For reasons which are incredibly hard to understand,
even the French have managed 357mph. |
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//We've solved the problem of not getting there fast
enough. We don't need to try to supercharge an old
idea just because it's romantic.// |
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I disagree. We have not solved the problem of
getting anywhere fast enough. A short-haul flight of
1hr with luggage travels at an average speed of about
150mph, if you assume 30min to get to the airport,
30min for security and boarding, and 30min to collect
your luggage and get out. |
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If I take the Eurostar I can, depending on destination,
attain an average speed of about 150mph - the same
as flying. The Eurostar is also cheaper and more
comfortable, carries more people and gets me to the
centre of whichever city I'm visiting. |
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In a big country like the US, 200mph trains should be
the norm. I mean, c'mon guys, even the French... |
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They could always ask the Chinese to build them for them. High speed trains (ie 200mph+) now connect just about every major Chinese city, while the fastest train in the USA never exceeds 48mph. Of course in the UK, where the train was invented, the fastest train never exceeds an average of 59mph. |
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King's Cross to Hull is the fastest regular train, with
an average speed of 111.4mph |
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Average speed of Eurostar from London to Paris is
105-110mph. |
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/ Assume 30min to get to the train station, 30min for security and boarding, and 30min to collect your luggage and get out ? / |
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Or do you just jump on at the last moment and buy the ticket from the conductor ? Make a good movie. |
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I only partially understand the whole attraction of trains.
Sure it's nice that you can board the train 20 mins before
most other people, scatter 7 empty cans of Stella around
and then unsteadily beckon everyone who boards to sit next
to you, thereby ensuring the whole 4 person table section
to yourself. But if you're going to do 200 mph+ surely it
makes sense to do it in WAY thinner air? and while you're at
it, do 550 mph. With mature tech and no land buying
earthquake someone-stole-the-signal-cable woes? |
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//King's Cross to Hull is the fastest regular train, with an average speed of 111.4mph |
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Blimus, but that's going downhill, if we take the planet to be an oblate spheroid. |
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I suspect the journey away from Hull is slightly faster. |
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//Air, train and road travel are statistically more
dangerous than just staying at home.// Not if you
live in Nepal. |
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//For reasons which are incredibly hard to understand// |
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1. Dirigisme means that they (the French) can lay the tracks in straight lines, instead of having to make frequent detours around NIMBYs.
2. Lower population density means that they have other places to put trees, besides railway embankments, so that the lines are not clogged with fallen leaves. (If you deforested the track-sides of the UK, you'd wipe out half the country's wildlife, and the urban foxes wouldn't be able to get to work on time). [I have no statistical basis for this point, but that didn't stop it from springing to mind.]
3. They threw a lot of money, and some of it stuck. |
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////Air, train and road travel are statistically more dangerous than just staying at home.// Not if you live in Nepal// |
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I'm pretty sure homes are more dangerous than aircraft, I've got my friend over at the HSE crunching some stats for me. I suspect that staying on major carriers, that you're safer flying about than "just getting that thing out of the loft Gladys...." will have to factor in the cancer risk.... |
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