Racko From Germany, joined Nov 2001, 4838 posts, RR: 21 Posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 3622 times:
Hi,
what is the fastest train in your country ? Please post a picture of it and the speed it is certified for (with a full load of passengers) - no experimental trains please
For Germany, it is the german-built ICE 3 train by Thyssen Krupp & Siemens:
Sonic From Lithuania, joined Jan 2000, 1670 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 3604 times:
In Lithuania it is maybe some 80 km/h... Faster to go in car. Lithuania is more like USA than Europe - most of people has car (and big cars in fact) and are travelling with them. Trains are only on major routes and even there are almost unused -- there are plans to shut down passenger railways completely. We, by the way, have 4 international airports and plans to build the 5th one... Quite much for country with 3,5 million people.
Victech From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 546 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 3613 times:
Living in America, we don't really have fast rail...the fastest train we have is currently the Amtrak Acela® Express. It's certified at 150MPH during certain runs in the NEC (Northeast Corridor--which is roughly any electrified trackage between Washington DC and Boston).
David_itl From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2001, 7147 posts, RR: 14 Reply 3, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 3598 times:
I am (un)reliably informed that the fastest train in Britain is Stephenson's Rocket. Sorry no photo nor speed!
David_itl From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2001, 7147 posts, RR: 14 Reply 6, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 3572 times:
Designed and built by George Stephenson of the Liverpool and Manchester railway in 1829, the Rocket was the winner in the Rainhill trials—a competition sponsored by the railway to obtain a locomotive for carrying both passengers and freight. It pulled a load of three times its own weight at the rate of 20 km/hr (12.5 mph) and hauled a coach filled with passengers at 39 km/hr (24 mph). When the road opened in 1831, it employed eight of Stephenson's locomotives.
However, the real answer is that we are due for a tilting train on the West Coast Mainline service linking Glasgow, Manchester and London before the year 2050. Earlier if they sort themselves out! I think the maximum speed will be 140mph (225 kph).
Saintsman From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2002, 2065 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 3579 times:
Sonic,
Railways in the UK are a sore point at the moment(?)
Swissgabe From Switzerland, joined Jan 2000, 5265 posts, RR: 37 Reply 8, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 3596 times:
Here in Switzerland we have:
TGV (France) from Zurich/Bern/Lausanne/Neuchatel/Geneva to Paris
ICE (Germany) from Zurich/Bern/Basel to Frankfurt/Hamburg
Cisalpino (Italy) from Zurich/Basel/Luzern to Stuttgart (Germany), Milano and Venice (Italy)
All train are not faster than 160km/H, depending on the route they drive on.
Regular Trains are not slower, http://www.sbb.ch is the Swiss Federal Railway website, very nice.
Here in Switzerland we are ranked No.2 in using the Trains and No. 2 of the Train density in Switzerland, No. 1 in both cases is Japan.
Smooth as silk - Royal Orchid Service /// Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens - Springbok
PROSA From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 5439 posts, RR: 5 Reply 9, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 3560 times:
Railways in the UK are a sore point at the moment
They're still 5,000 times better than anything in the United States.
"Let me think about it" = the coward's way of saying "no"
Victech From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 546 posts, RR: 2 Reply 10, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 3536 times:
No insult intended, PROSA, but the US is much better in terms of accident statistics (i.e. "We may be late, but we'll get you there safely!"). Most of the people that get killed by trains here are the idiots that don't stop at railroad crossings ("level crossings" for those across the pond). Here in Florida, one county is not posting signs with the wording "Big train little car, are you past the stop bar?" in an effort to remind people that they shouldn't try to beat the train (especially with the Amtrak Silver services exceeding 80MPH in this sector).
LH423 From Canada, joined Jul 1999, 6501 posts, RR: 55 Reply 11, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 3533 times:
Currently, the fastest American train (as already depicted) can reach speeds of only 240km/h, and even then because of track restrictions, this is only for short periods of travel in rural Rhode Island and Connecticut. I believe at some point there are plans to build a specialized track, allowing the train to keep up high speeds for longer periods of time, but that's probably a few years off.
The US government has a multi-billion dollar plan to build a high speed (or even Maglev) train system throughout the United States, extending to Montréal, Canada in the north, Miami, Florida in the South, and along the West Coast in the west. With the current plan, it will be possible to travel by high speed train from Portland, Maine to Jacksonville Florida via high speed train.
LH423
« On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux » Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Turbulence From Spain, joined Nov 1999, 963 posts, RR: 24 Reply 12, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 3735 times:
In Spain there's three kind of trains:
The regular ones, with services at about 120 kms/h (75 MPH) for short distances, and until 160 (100) for long distances.
The second kind is the TALGO. It stands fot Tren Articulado Ligero Goikoetxea Oriol (Goikoetxea's and Oriol's Light Articulated Train), being Goikoetxea and Oriol the two engineers that disegned it after the initial Goikoetxea's own idea on reliability, safety and economy. It started services in 1942 at 115 kms/h
The next one, Talgo II, entered service by 1968, at 120 kms/h and was certified for 160 kms/h in 1986.
Talgo III entered service in 1974. The difference from the II is the variable width. Spain lines are 12,5 cms wider than European ones, and this train is able to circulate in european tracks thanks to its movable wheels. These ones started night services to Paris and day services to Paris and Geneva. The procedure is fully automated in an installation like the next picture's
and needs only 5 secs each axle, meaning about two or three minutes for a whole train, depending on number of wagons.
Talgo Pendular entered service in 1980. The name comes from the suspension columns, since the weight of the train body does not stand on the axels, but on top of the inside columns, which are as high as the train itself. It makes a pendular effect that allows the train a higher speed on curve, as the inertia pulls it from the lower part. The passengers do not feel the centrifugal force.
The train has only one axle between two wagons, making the system pull the axles despite the direction the train is circulating. Only the first and the last units have their own axle. Each one of the in-between ones pull the axle behind it.
The simplicity of this suspension allow also the train to be significantly lower than the normal trains, with benefits to the gravity center
This train has served lines between New York and Boston, and from Seattle to Vancouver among others. Germany bought 115 units of it in 1992.
Today, the Talgo II serves some domestic lines and the Talgo III international ones, both at 160 kms/h.
The Talgo Pendular serves regular lines, both domestic and international (Madrid-Paris, Barcelona-Paris, Barcelona-Geneva, Barcelona-Milano) at 200 kms/h (120 MPH) in regular tracks and 240 (150) in high speed tracks with passengers, althoug it was tested in these tracks at 303 kms/h. (189 MPH)
Other evolutions are the Talgo Pendular 200, already pictured and the Talgo XXI
with variable width also available on the locomotive, representing big operative benefits in international sectors.
The third type is the TGV, which for the moment is serving only Madrid-Sevilla. I have no pics, but it looks like the french TGV. The technology is like in the TALGO, in which each axle is pulled by the wagon in front of it, although in this case, there's a twin boogie between wagons.
It is serving with pasengers at 340 kms/h.(215 MPH)
High speed trains are expected to link Madrid to Barcelona and France by 2004, and for this sector TALGO is already testing a train that has already circulated at 359 kms/h, and will serve the lines with passengers at 350 kms/h (220 MPH)
Frequentflyer5 From United States of America, joined May 2001, 236 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (10 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 3497 times:
The Nozomi 500 series (Japan's newer bullet train/Shinkansen) travels at speeds over 300km/h. The design of this train comes from a up side down 747. They turned the a/c upside down and focused on the tail end design.
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