World's "Coolest" train

[dlavery]

In response to overwhelming world-wide demand (OK, so at least one person thought about asking for it at some time), somebody has invented a magnetic levitation superconductor driven liquid nitrogen cooled model train! This is just too cool!

Now if they can just come up with a magnetic levitation superconductor driven liquid nitrogen cooled roller coaster...

-dave

[Gabe]

That is awesome! I love the way they top off the locomotive with liguified gas in order to cool the train.
Someone has a fun job...

[Kyle]

Thats really cool, I hope to see this in use someday.

[Billfred]

Probably a heck of a lot smoother ride than even the Northeast Corridor, too!

Spoiler for For those who don't know what the Northeast Corridor is:

The Northeast Corridor is the stretch of Amtrak-owned track that stretches from Union Station in Washington to South Station in Boston. (South Station is a pretty awesome station at that.) You can feel the difference when you cross from the freight tracks that make up most of Amtrak's system to the NEC, which connects with the Silver Star route (the only train that serves Columbia) in Washington. It's a great improvement in ride smoothness, but light sleepers still need not apply.

[Arefin Bari]

Dave... you just made my day. Thank you.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Dave... that is awesome! Sweet find.

[Schnabel]

Aww man, that takes away all of the fun of mashing pennies on a train track!
Cool find though!

[DCA Fan]

Very cool!

[Ericgehrken]

That's amazing

[artdutra04]

That's wicked awesome, especially since it never derails. (Darn N-scale trains in the middle of a tunnel...)

Also impressive is that the trains can "remember" exactly how far from the track they started out as, without any kind of sensor feedback or active controls, as well as being able to "hover" sideways from the sides of buildings. I wonder if this technology could feasibly be put to other uses, like taking the linear track and turning it into frictionless bearings?

Spoiler for 2008:

Game clue!

[VEN]

:O Wow, and I thought lining a tunnel and a hot wheels car with magnets was cool!

[Jay H 237]

Thanks Dave, now I have to rip up my track and start over again!

That's neat and makes a good trade show exibit. I just don't see it making mainstream model railroading with the need for liquid nitrogen. Maybe the enginners (pun intended! ) can design it to work with something more readily available, and safer for younger children.



Here's a pic I took just this morning after seeing this thread. The second engine is a model of the one in my current WAI pic. It's an HO scale Atlas RS-3 New Haven (as is the one in the foreground) except it has road number 529. A model of the same exact real engine I'm standing in front of!

Atlas wound up doing a special run with #529 as they had already released #551 (the one in the foreground) and #559 (I have but not pictured). They normally release two with each road name but since #529 has been fully restored and is functional on the Railroad Museum of New England they were presurred by hobbiests to release a third number for the New Haven road name. I just couldn't pass it up when I saw it on ebay.