Hello,

I don't know if this was covered in any threads last year but the French set a world's speed record for steel wheel - rail transport....357 MPH in April.

Here is a video of the run. You don't get a sense of how fast this is until you see the "fly-by" filmed from an overpass at about 3:50 on the video clock.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8315963391996682173&q=tgv+record+english&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

I understand they fitted larger wheels and more powerful traction motors to this train. Other modifications included raising the supply voltage from 25,000 to 31,000 volts. Train mods totaled 40 million US$.

While traversing the rails at a blistering 523 feet per second, you can imagine what even a slight elevation change on the rail height could do the ride quality!

The record was set on the Paris to Strasbourg line which was officially put in service in June with a daily service speed of 199 MPH versus the 186 MPH which has been the norm.

Notice the close-up video of the pantograph and catenary. Does the catenary wire oscillate so a groove does not get worn on the pantograph shoe??

This record was just short of the highest record set by the Japanese mag lev train. I presume the French will want to beat that. The Germans gave up a while go with their ICE, they traded records for some years. I believe when the French crossed 300 MPH, the Germans may have said..."we are done."

I guess if the train can go 357 MPH, 199MPH is pretty safe?!

Simply amazing.

Regards,

Randy Musselman

Randy,

I think I remember reading this last April. That's fast! Makes the 110 mph Harrisburg line seem like small potatoes, doesn't it?

Imagine if we had cross country high speed lines, no intermediate stops running at 300+ mph? Better not have any grade crossings or public access...but you could make New York to LA in 10 hours. That's not much slower than a plane.

Mark

Mark,

Thank you for the comments.

Oh, yes. As I mentioned before in this forum. I would like to make a UK trip in the next few years. During the trip, take a day trip from London's newly opened, Saint Pancras station to Paris in 2-1/4 hours, under the channel.

As for the US, high speed will be a challenge. If you look at the TGV's retrun on investment being 10+ years.....this is a tall demand for private investment. As for Amtrak, we know the general appitite for government owned passenger service!

We do have a Acela at 150 MPH, its a start!

Regards

Randy,

That sounds like fun! I personally enjoyed leaving Paris, both on our way to Rome and on our flight home!

We did a TGV train from Paris to Nice. Trasferred to a short train to Ventimiglia, Italty to visit relatives for a few days. Took a ride up the French and Italian Alps to a small town, too. Overall, riding trains in Europe is easy because of the sheer number of trains. The difficulty we ran in to was not knowing some of the idosyncracies, like making reservations for trains we had tickets for. That was a bit annoying, but we got through it.

I still prefer Viewliners and Superliner sleeping cars to the Rome-Paris "night train" sleepers. I like sleeping with my feet facing the front of the train, and not 90 degrees. The resulting rocking and rolling left us a little seasick when we arrived in Parist. Also, that standard train didn't run all that fast, but was otherwise nice. Even met a few traveling british railfans.

Mark

What struck me was the train accelerating at over 1kph/sec even over 500 kph. The train clearly had power to spare, from the video it sounds like they simply ran out of test track.

You could see how nice it rode through a crossover at 4:29-4:31.

Here's a bit on California's $40B high speed rail effort - $40B but "cheaper than the alternative".
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/who_ ... oid=617668

Personally, I'm of the notion that a transcontinental high speed rail system would look more like the Chunnel or the planned Swiss base tunnels. Because they are crossing a frontier, the trains are a mix of drive-on car and truck ferries, intermodal and hotshot freight. For them the frontier is the Channel or the Alps, but for us the frontier would be the sheer vastness of this country.

Robert,

Running out of qualified track may have been the issue. I cannot image the French not wanting to surpass the maglev record, which I understand is the highest at 361 MPH. If they were at 357 MPH....why not?? They may want to prove, that conventional wheel-rail has not reached its limit. Feasibility tests are one thing but commercial service is another. If they are now running 199 MPH, daily service, imagine the effort necessary to sustain this.

It appears they may have made only one peak run? Perhaps there were other factors why they didn't make a second pass? Traction motor winding heat, wheel stresses, etc? If they invested $40M US into upgrades, I suspect there may be more attempts in the future.

Another interesting modification they had to do was increase catenary tension. Apparently there is a critical wave-form frequency speed that travels along the wire and is based on tension and wire mass. If the train approaches that speed, there can be dangerous vertical displacements and contact interruptions. These increase the tension from a normal 4500 lb to 6300 and 7200 lb respectively. This an interesting phenomena that I never knew existed.

Cross-over ride quality has to be tough to maintain. Even after Amtrak’s big investment on the Keystone Line with concrete tie's, etc., crossovers are still a rough ride. In addition, I believe the entire line has not been rehabbed yet. NS having trackage rights does not help. Mixing passenger and freight is not best for passenger quality track maintenance. Of course, passenger-only lines are a luxury on this side of the pond.

Regards,

Randy Musselman