The Future of model trains

[Summertrainz]

heh model train lovers 
I found this video when i was looking for videos
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5911794688453215486&q=maglev+toy+train&total=19&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
see
as the real trains become more advanced...
so do the models
i thought this was crazy
but it looks expensive!
but i can see it happening in the future
more reliable
nothing can derail it
with some tweeking i think it will do something to this market
Whats your thoughts everyone ?

[Bojangle]

You must have your screen set to  cinemascope, lol
I can't see the video, but I'm not sure advanced is the word.

Perhaps more specialized, if railroads are to survive, and they will survive.

Efficient is another description, more power to haul larger loads means fewer trips, less cost and more profit.   Look at the Union Pacific prospectus, the profit is staggering, but necessary to meet rising costs, including environmental issues, depletion of natural resources and labor. 

A vintage steamer might have  only cost $50,000 to build, but costs half a million to restore and meet all applicable codes and regulations, and another million to lease trackage.

More reliable, hard to define that one.  Derails are costly to railroads, for us modelers it is just a little inconvenience, and a challenge to be met.  I have several diesels, only to be proto with my area, but steamers will forever be a part of this hobby.  Steamers may have died in the real world, but not  in  our hearts and minds. 

I'm possibly way off base  with my response,  but I don't want to think of what the future holds,  I am enjoying this moment in time with the great trains we have.

Have fun
Bo

 

[sour rails]

     Things will always change, but not all for the better.  Steamers are nice but so are some deisels; we just have to choose which ones we like from the past and continue to choose which is better as the future comes.
As for steam, my favorite would be N&W's 4-8-4, or at least that style.
I classify deisels into two kinds, passenger and freight.  My favorite passenger style would be the E-6 with the slant nose.  Freight deisels, my favorite would be the SD45.

[MrMunchkin]

not only would that probably be expensive, but that dry ice, or whatever it is, is probably not real safe for little kids to play with, remember the movie Time Cop, just imagine the warning label they'd have to put on these.    P.M.

[Jim Banner]

Dry ice is a solid which turns to a vapour at a relatively warm -78 degrees.  What you are looking at is a liquid, probably liquid nitrogen which boils at -195 degrees.  It is required to make the superconducting bars in the bottom of the train superconduct.  You may have noticed that when the locomotive warmed up, it suddenly sat down on the magnetic "track."  This is when the superconducting material warmed above its critical temperature.  I am assuming that the material is one of the relatively recent superconducting ceramics which can superconduct at temperatures as high as -148 degrees.  Forty-five years ago when I was working in a low temperature physics lab, the liquid would have had to be liquid helium which boils at -269 degrees.  That is only 4 degrees above absolute zero.

These are definitely not the things you want your kids playing with.  But don't worry, I am sure it is a one-of-a-kind demonstrator for displaying the levitation properties of superconductors in magnetic fields.  Thanks, Summertrainz, for posting the link.

[Guilford Guy]

-269 Kelvin? 
Does make an interesting smoke generator

[Terry Toenges]

I thought that was really neat.

[Craig]

So did I, back when Steve posted it. http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,1015.0.html

Craig

[jsmvmd]

Dear Jim,

Wouldn't that be 269 Kelvin, in response to GG?  I did not look this up, but I thought absolute zero was zero degrees K, -269C, -451F.  Please correct me if I am wrong. Have not thought about physics until last week when I landed on my "Como se llama."

Best Wishes,

Jack

[Guilford Guy]

absolute zero is -273 I believe!

[Jim Banner]

Jack, you are close and Gilford Guy is even closer.  Absolute zero is indeed 0 degrees Kelvin.  That is usually stated as -273.15 degrees Celsius.  Liquid helium boils at 4 degrees Kelvin under atmospheric pressure.  Combining liquid helium 3 and liquid 4 under vacuum can achieve temperatures down to .01 Kelvin.

I sould have mentioned that the degrees I was using were Celcius, not Kelvin, not Farenheit not Rankine and certainly not Reaumur degrees.  Celsius, and occasionally Kelvin, are standard in Canada and most of the rest of the world and I sometimes forget that other temperature scales are still in use.  Sorry.