Magnetic Levitation Trains Magnetic levitation or maglev for short is the technique of making a vehicle, more often than not a train, hover over the 'track' and move by the use of magnets. Magnetic levitation has the potential to move trains more quickly and more quietly than conventional wheel-based trains. Surprisingly, most of the power consumed is used to conquered wind resistance at high speed, not to hold the train suspended in mid-air. You would be forgiven for imagining that maglev is new technology, but in fact the first American patent was filed by a German inventor in America in 1907. It then took 74 years before the first commercial maglev train came into existance in 1984 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. However, that particular installation became quite unreliable and it was withdrawn in 1995. The fastest recorded speed of a maglev train under test conditions was in Japan in 2003. It ran at an impressive 361 mph, but that is merely 3.5 mph faster than France's TGV, which has been in existance for four decades. The TGV's top speed of 357.2 mph was surpassed by the Chinese Harmony Express in 2009. However, these latter day wheeled services are founded on tried and tested technology on which hundreds of billions of dollars has been spent over nearly 200 years. If more attention and money were lavished on the maglev, it would exceed traditional train speeds quite easily. The most successful maglev train in operation nowadays runs to Shanghai airport like the British one ran to Birmingham Airport. However, the resemblance between the two ceases there. The British maglev travelled at up to 26 mph, whereas the Chinese, but German built, maglev runs at a peak speed of 160 mph. Much of the early research and development was carried out in Britain by Professor Eric Laithwaite from after the Second World War to 1973, but Germany is the main influence on the maglev train now, although Germany is working closely with the Chinese and the Japanese to develop the technology. One of the major stumbling blocks for maglev trains is infrastructure. Maglev trains are incompatible with traditional rail rack so they have nowhere to go. Laying new maglev track is not hideously expensive, but it is dear and would involve having two sets of incompatible rails running alongside each other for several decades, which would of course take up two times as much land. Having said that, some progress was made in designing rails that could be used by both systems but the endeavour was allowed to fall fallow. So, the story of magnetic levitation trains began with a German inventor over a hundred years ago and although they lost track of the scheme for thirty years or so during and after the War, German scientists and engineers are back at the vanguard of this fascinating technology, which will surely supplant our traditional train and track technologies in the future.
If the electricity required to run them were manufactured by methods other than fossil fuel, these very quiet trains would go a long way to decreasing pollution in both inner cities and the countryside. Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a lot of topics, but is currently involved with American Flyer Train Sets. If you would like to know more about train sets for kids, please go over to our website for some great offers.