Good ideas for new rail types in the future.

[AntBUK]

Better yet, could a NewGRF not do it?

[DeletedUser21]

What if the maximum speed is bit-fixed? Do these ideas require a complete rework of the vehicle system?

[AntBUK]

A GRF and a patch for speed limits then.

[Kolbur]

my 2c:
Vaccum trains are real right now. They are still more like project / models but...
Also there is "plan" (more like Sci-Fi right now) to build trans atlantic vaccum tunnel
(ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_tunnel )

so if we'd like to add vaccum trains:
- should be addon to maglev (like electric trans)
- vaccum can operate on malglev tracks w/o any penalty - they will be only going not faster that normal maglev loco developed at the sime year. (if some one don't know vaccum trains are more like the same trians like maglev, but in tube there is no air friction... that's the all idea)
- we need to add new track section - pressure chamber (tran shold stop inside it for a while - sec or two). Also station could be working as it.

That's what I thought of too. The current maglev tracks become vacuumizable and indeed the current tubular bridge graphics could be reused for the representation. I am not shure if we need special vacuum trains because the transportation technology is the same as the maglev one. Instead, the vacuum tracks could just remove the maximum speed limit of all maglev trains that use these tracks because there isn't friction anymore. That would bring an interesting and different gameplay because maximum speed of trains wouldn't matter, only the power of trains. And the implications for large networks would be completely new with trains that can have a speed of a couple of thousands km/h, after a long acceleration phase on a straight track of course. Curves should slow down the trains the same way like it is already handled in OpenTTD.

[t0mcioo]

I am not shure if we need special vacuum trains because the transportation technology is the same as the maglev one.

IMHO we need - the vaccum needs to be hermetic one + need to have somekind "life support units" for passengers. There probably will be other aspects. But it can be done by re-using grpahics and params from orginal maglevs, adding 'vaccum' (or whatever) in name + rising costs (running and buy).

[Tom0004]

Better yet, could a NewGRF not do it?

just had a quick scan though this thread, and had this thought,

what if this vaccum railway, was suraounded buy a tubular bridge graphic, all the way along the line ?

for trains, you could simply replace trains from different climates, as down with the genetic tram set and such.

people's thoughts would be nice,

as i'd happy throw together some sprites for the railways, and possiably some vechiles

[natan_j]

One interesting way to get the warp gates to work would be to almost treat them as 2-door depots, where the train has to completely enter the gate, at a set maximum speed, before it can come out the other side at that same speed. This would mean it would be fast to get a 4-car train across the map, but painfully long to get a 100-car train across. Also, a set "wait time", from when the train has fully entered the gate, till when the train can start leaving it again, could be set based on how far the destination gate is.

[Bilbo]

I am not shure if we need special vacuum trains because the transportation technology is the same as the maglev one.

IMHO we need - the vaccum needs to be hermetic one + need to have somekind "life support units" for passengers. There probably will be other aspects. But it can be done by re-using grpahics and params from orginal maglevs, adding 'vaccum' (or whatever) in name + rising costs (running and buy).

Yep, cooling needs to be managed somehow too, as in vacuum train you cannot rely on the flowing air to cool the engine :)

But in the game we don't need to invent how to do it (which could be pretty hard, since 10 MW engine can generate quite a lot of heat while operatin), just invent the parameters for the engine, so it would be playable and somewhat consistent with other engines

[dav-i-de]

Yep, cooling needs to be managed somehow too, as in vacuum train you cannot rely on the flowing air to cool the engine

As far as I know the engine of maglev trains is not in the train itself, but in the tracks. At least for the german Transrapid.

[chipetke]

for heat dissipation/consumption: did anyone thought of liquid nitrogen?

[Mr Pattle]

Intresting ideas about cooling. I'd have thought that the way a vacuum tube would work would be similar to what Richk67 was saying about Brunel's system, by having a section in the tube (every 100/200m or so) Where a pump removed all the air inside the tube, sucking trains forwards, and creating a current through the tube. Although the tube wouldn't be a complete vacuum as such, but it would still lower air resistance, as the trains would be moving at the same speed as the air around them, so it wouldn't be slowed down by air pushing against it. I also imagined the trains as simply ugly cylinders, designed to fit the diameter of the tube, to prevent it staying still while the air moved around it.

The upshot of this is that you wouldn't need a cooling system, as the pumps are powered, not the train, and they would be built on the outside of the tube. It would be safe to assume anyway, that by the time vacuum tubes are in common use, technology had improved to state that less energy was wasted in the form of heat, and if you're not happy with that, the air flowing out of the pumps would take a fair bit of the excess heat anyway.

Although what I said above isn't a vacuum tube per se, in that it contains air, a vacuum cleaner contains a current of air as well, and works on similar principles.

[t0mcioo]

Yep, cooling needs to be managed somehow too, as in vacuum train you cannot rely on the flowing air to cool the engine

As far as I know the engine of maglev trains is not in the train itself, but in the tracks. At least for the german Transrapid.

correct - the same idea is for present vaccum trians (ie. in transatlancic tunel)

[Zephyris]

I have already made some graphics for some new rail types, and suggested ways to incorporate them into the existing grf framework, have a look here: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 425&hilit=

Its worth it

[ostlandr]

Cool ideas!

For vacuum tube trains, cooling coud work via infrared. Put the excess heat to a hi-temp radiator- it glows, infrared energy passes to the tunnel walls and then out into the atmosphere, ground or ocean.

I think warp gates should be the follow-on to airports. Passengers and cargo get dropped off, and after an extremely expensive Zap! they arrive at the destination.

[DJ Nekkid]

and with airports, why not make spaceplanes? either as helicopter style because of the VTOL, or as normal planes... We will also probably have a scramjet in the future.

[Bilbo]

and with airports, why not make spaceplanes? either as helicopter style because of the VTOL, or as normal planes... We will also probably have a scramjet in the future.

Once the large map match will be part of trunk, scramjets will get really usable (large distances need fast planes :)

[DJ Nekkid]

and with airports, why not make spaceplanes? either as helicopter style because of the VTOL, or as normal planes... We will also probably have a scramjet in the future.

Once the large map match will be part of trunk, scramjets will get really usable (large distances need fast planes

sorry for the OT...

Any progress towards trunk with that patch btw? A chance to actually play a 4k x 4k or some other GREAT map is tempting and even on such a map the normal 900-1000km/h planes use a good year on a t/tr trip