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I guess by now most of us have heard the term Maglev and we know that it means Magnetically Levitated Train among other things. These are the cool trains of the future that can hit incredible speeds approaching and passing those of small planes. I think the first thing to talk about here is how they work. Did you ever take two magnets and try and put them together while they were set up to repel each other. I bet you never succeeded. You didn't succeed because the magnets kept pushing each other away and when you got them too close they pushed each other off to the side. You were only able to get within a certain distance. Now imagine that you had some sort of a device that would hold one magnet in place above the other without letting it go sideways and it would also allow you to get the two magnets as close as possible. Now comes the best part. We change the magnetic field so that one magnet pulls the other magnet along. We keep changing the fields and this propels our train, it has no motors onboard but is powered along by the outside magnets on the bottom of the train and in the guide way. See I told you this was cool. By the way the magnets are electromagnets.

Actually the concept is pretty simple. It makes you wonder why we didn't do this years ago. Couldn't you see Edison developing something like this in his laboratory? Well the problem here is you need dependable magnets or the train will come crashing down. So why don't we have these great trains everywhere, it seems that they would be much cheaper to operate? This may be, but it costs more to build the guide ways than to lay down track and we don't have any built so we would have to start from scratch. Add to this the fact that conventional trains are getting much faster and using ordinary track and you can see what is holding us back. One great advantage of a maglev is that there is no friction since nothing touches. There are no wheels to wear down track or wear themselves down. This means no axils and running gear. Maintenance should be a lot less on these trains and the trains themselves should be safer and their should be a lot less accidents.

50 Foot Test Track At NASA
Photo Source: NASA

Maglev trains would be a lot more popular and economical if someone could figure out how to get rid of the guide way and maybe just use a line buried in the ground. This may sound ridiculous now but maybe the train could be kept in place electronically somehow. If this ever happens then maglevs will become very popular since one of the most expensive components will have been eliminated. The next best thing would be to figure out how to make guide ways cheaper. Don't think for one minute that the Maglev is dead. As a matter of fact, Tony Blair just threw his support behind a project in England that would see the construction of a 300 mph Maglev that would carry passengers between London and Manchester and the trip would only take less than one hour. The next step is to build a line from London to Glasgow, but this line will not be built all at once but in pieces. The danger with this type of construction is that if a new government gets in, they may stop the construction short of the ultimate target to save money. I have seen this happen before. It makes me think of a certain highway that ended many miles short of its target and became almost useless. The train to Glasgow is estimated to cost about 30 billion pounds which is a heap of money. The British pound is worth $1.77 today, making the project cost over 53 Billion dollars. Its hard to see how Britain can afford such a project. How can the Maglev ever pay for itself at that staggering price? Not only that, but I am almost willing to bet there will be cost overruns as there are on most projects where there is a lot of money being thrown around. So why would they want to do this? Maybe it is because of the amazing speed which is estimated to be about 311 mph, or maybe it is a canny plot to sell Maglev trains to countries that will be astounded by the project if it is successful or maybe it is just a way to give some favored companies some business. It could be like building a sky scraper. Everyone wants the tallest one. With this train it may be that everyone will want the fastest one. We all like gadgets and this is sort of like gadgets for countries.

Don't be fooled into thinking that Maglev technology is only useful in propelling trains. I am not saying that it will be used on cars or anything like that, but it is being used for something called the rail gun. The principle of opposing magnets is about to be used on a new type of catapult on aircraft carriers. This will not only do away with the bulky steam catapults but it is more powerful. As a matter of fact they can be made so powerful that rockets that are being launched into space can be shot out of a rail gun, thus saving most of the fuel that they would have to burn to get out or Earth's atmosphere. If set on the moon, these guns could launch vehicles that wouldn't have to use any fuel due to the low gravity of the moon.

Will the Maglev train take over ground transportation or will bullet trains that travel almost as fast keep improving and make the Maglev impractical? The Germans don't think so and are furiously working on Maglev projects. Americans are also working on this as are the Japanese and as I previously stated, the British. I am not an engineer or a scientist, I wanted to tell you that so you don't give too much weight to what I am about to say as it is only my opinion, but I think Maglev will fail. I am not saying that there won't be any built, but I am saying that I think the price is impractical, especially when there are other, cheaper, alternatives available. Until something can be built that doesn't need that guide constructed, I believe that the most we will see as pertains to Maglev trains are small test projects and I am almost willing to bet that the Maglev in Britain will never reach Glasgow.