Retired engineer builds giant and revolutionary train, in his backyard
An evening pause: This story is not simply some cutsy human-interest tale about how some guy makes something cool in his backyard. Max Schlienger built this scale model prototype to demonstrate his concept for better and more efficient type of train.
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An evening pause: This story is not simply some cutsy human-interest tale about how some guy makes something cool in his backyard. Max Schlienger built this scale model prototype to demonstrate his concept for better and more efficient type of train.
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Interesting, but I don’t think it will scale up.
It is an interesting concept. It strikes me as a modern cable car, enabling a centralized engine plant to drive trains around a metropolitan area. If the weight savings benefit really does enable steeper grades than are otherwise practical then that has some real merit for next generation subways.
I remember riding one of the old Paris subway cars under the Seine back in the 1970s and how it accelerated like mad across the river bottom so that it had enough inertia to carry it up the grade and into the station on the far side.
So i’m guessing that Elon is paying attention and his Boring Company is working on machines that can dig tunnels to exploit this advantage, and San Francisco and Boston 2100 will be better for it.
Speaking as a rail enthusiast, I am not impressed. If you want power from a central location, electric traction is highly developed with locomotives having power ratings in the thousands of horses and individual cars, should you decide to replace locos with powered cars, in the hundreds. Already proven in high speed service in Asia and Europe. And unlike earlier electrifications which had to use oddball frequencies like 25 hertz, today’s railroads use “toaster current, 50 or 60 hz, depending on the country. That saves money as you can buy power off the grid and not have to build converter stations or dedicated power plants. And you can let the power companies use your right of way for their power lines…for a fee, of course. And if you can run at 150 mph plus, on the flats, hills tend to flatten out. “Making a run for the grade” goes back to the earliest days of railroading.