India continues high speed rail
“Going ahead with its ambitious high-speed train proposal, Railways have joined hands with Japan to begin the ground work to reduce travel time by half on the Delhi-Mumbai corridor.” – see link.
Even in these budget crisis times, we occasionally see good news for transit and train supporters. Today, I make note of two developments:
This is not where we want to be, it is not bullet or high speed rail, but it is a step in the right direction for those that want to see us become a greener, more energy dependent country.
So, the Washington Post runs this blast of an article against high speed rail — and public transit in general — in the USA. Hmm, not a big surprise. I enjoyed reading the article and getting that little bit of anger from the wild assumptions and incorrect causal relationships inferred in the article. THEN… I scroll down to the comments of readers of the opinion piece. INCREDIBLE responses! Truly worth a few minutes of your day to check this out. We have some great minds in this country and the internet allows us to voice our arguments. This is not to be missed:
One Hundred and One Track Plans for Model Railroaders (Model Railroad Handbook, No. 3)
You can find all types of track plans that can be downloaded to your computer. Some of these track plans are free. One place to find free track plans is Atlas Railroad. Atlas also offers a free download on their web site that allows you to create your own track plans using their track. Although the most fun way is to create your own from scratch. This way you have a one-of-a-kind layout. The first thing when preparing to build a layout is to figure out how much space you have for your model. Once you have the dimensions of your layout you probably need to sketch these on a piece of paper. Now you can start thinking about what gauge and era you want to model. The next step would be to decide if you are going to have mountains with maybe tunnels, or bridges crossing streams, or rivers. Also you may want your rail crossing over a deep valley or maybe an interstate highway. You will also, need to consider why your railroad exists. Your railroad needs a purpose like hauling raw materials to a factor or hauling coal from a mine or timber from the forest.
When you have all the information you need to start your layout, you will need to start drawing this information on paper to get a rough idea of what you have. Once you have a drawing to work from you can build the bench work for your railroad making it stout and sturdy. Now you can use several different things for the foundation of your railroad. Probably the most used is plywood. You can start by covering your bench work with the plywood for a sound foundation. If you have rivers running through your layout you may want to cut the plywood where your rivers will run and remove it from your layout. You may also need to cut into some of the cross members on your bench work allowing your river to be deep enough. If you have to cut very deep into your cross members make sure you reinforce them with more boards.
Now that you have your foundation you can start building your terrain. To build mountains or hills you can build these up with Styrofoam or use screen wire covered with Spackle compound either one will work well. While designing your terrain remember that the grade or rise of your train track should not be over 4o at maximum but the best is from 0o to 3o which means that for a 1% grade your track rise 1″ for every 100″. Another thing to keep in mind is that on your main lines you do not need sharp curves. Having sharp curves is probably one of the main reasons trains derail. The best track to use is flex track. This way you can make sweeping curves that make it easier for you locomotives to navigate around, but also give a more realistic look to you layout. No matter what never give up and always have fun with model railroading.
Thanks,
Steve Barnett
High Speed Rail in the UK
Lord Adonis said the development could be financed through public-private partnerships, similar to the Channel Tunnel rail link. “I want Britain to be a pioneer in low-cost, mass-market high-speed rail,” he said.
Another interesting concept is a transit system that is environmentally sustainable and available for the general population, not just the well off. How interesting! A system of travel for all people, not just the elite!
Meanwhile, here in the USA what is the popular transit plan? Toll-roads, not only making travel easier for the well off, but benefiting the corporations that are contracted to build and manage the toll-roads. To think these toll-road owning corporations don’t pad the pockets of their favorite politicians is absurd. Why/how does this continue? Because the American public allows it. End of story.
The Las Vegas Sun has a great article comparing two types of rail systems to connect Southern California with Las Vegas. The first is a conventional steel-wheels-on-rails model powered by electricity or a diesel-electric hybrid locomotive. The second is magnetic levitation, or maglev, that would float on a cushion of air, propelled by magnetic fields generated by electricity.
Germany’s Transrapid’s evolving technology was used to build the world’s only commercial maglev line in operation, a 19-mile-long system linking Shanghai and Pudong International Airport.
Shanghai's maglev train
The maglev looks like a monorail, but the technology is much different.
In the Transrapid system, passengers sit inside a vehicle that is a part of an electric motor and is levitated over an I-shaped guideway. An onboard computer system controls levitation and adjusts magnetic force of a set of onboard electromagnets as they move along the guideway.
Designated High Speed Rail Corridors, USA
That is not a bad thing, these items are certainly in need of upgrades. In addition, it will allow our trains to travel up to 110 mph, faster than they travel now, but well short of the 180 mph and more other bullet trains in the world reach.
According to the New York Times,
The state now closest to building a true high-speed system is California, where voters approved borrowing $9 billion last fall to begin building a train that can go faster than 220 m.p.h.
Other states are in the mix, even my home state of Alabama, which is pleasantly surprising. In addition, other advocates for rail transit say this is a step in the right direction.
Many rail advocates said that it would make sense to move to higher-speed rail before building true high-speed rail, and that getting the nation’s long-neglected rail system into working order could lay the foundation for future high-speed projects.
“You’ve got to walk before you can run, and we’ve just been crawling up to now,” said Ross B. Capon, the president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, an advocacy group for riders.
I wonder if America would have supported a drastic, major initiative, such as spending half a trillion dollars solely on passenger train service, to build a true interstate (and intrastate) system of trains across the country that would not only compete with airlines but offer an alternative to car travel. Unfortunately we will not find out at this time. We also will likely face another crushing blow when gas prices jump up at some point, and the vast majority of Americans are again held hostage to the whims of big oil and enemies of the United States.
Yes, a huge half-trillion (or trillion or two trillion) dollars investment would have shaken people up, but when you realize it truly is an investment for our future and perhaps our survival in an ability to get from city to city, I think whether we liked it at the time or not, we sure would like it at a future point in time.
Lynchburg, Virginia is reporting business is up at Amtrak, according to Lynchburg’s The News & Advance. Most of the travelers are families or those taking personal trips. Many are also business travelers. Unfortunately, the state of Virginia has not been on the bandwagon: “While Amtrak and state rail authorities have taken a close look at starting another daily train, its chances of becoming real were hurt last week when the General Assembly failed to agree on new transportation funding.”
Business traveler Mark Tetley summed it up with one simple sentence: “Frankly, it’s a lot easier than flying,” Tetley said. “You should have more trains in this country.”
