PurdueGuy wrote:norfolksouthern37 wrote:
Singaporekid: how on earth does a steam powered maglev seem reasonable??? thats going down in my 'most rediculous things ive ever heard of' list.
A nuclear powered loco would be steam. Steam locos as we know them would probably be way too heavy for maglev. However, with some assumptions in materials advancement, we could probably say that it is nuclear and/or steam. Or we could just say it is electric, or fuel cell, or whatever.
All of you guys seem to forget that Maglevs have
NO ENGINES AT ALL!!, rather they are propelled by the track. Take a look at the German Transrapid trains:
Here's one on the German test track:
And one on the worlds first operational commercial Maglev service in Shanghai:
There are no enigines
Theoretically speaking there is even no need for a driver, but people feel a lot safer when there is someone up fron to "drive" it.
Now in Locomotion that would be kind of awquard of course because power and speed are determined by the power of the locomotive. In reality though a fully automated maglev that just transports (massive long) trains of just wagons is very possible. With just a tiny little cabin up front so the driver can sit somewhere, if they wanted to put one in.
Since the maglev is powered by electricity and nothing else, steam powered, nuclear, fuel cell, or other technology. The on-board power is generated by linear generators integrated into the support magnets. There is a backup battery system on board that is continuesly recharged and allows the maglev to come to a stop in case of a full power failure of the track, and still hover for a while.
In Locomotion, all you would need to drive a train of maglev wagons is a small, nicely aerodynamically designed driver cabin up front. Because in locomotion the speed and power are determined by the "engine", this front cabin is where speed and power should be set, but large locomotives are absolutely not needed, although the design of the one I have seen in this thread are awesome!