Maglev Test Track
Thursday, 3rd January 2008 by Alex Turnbull
Between the cities of Lathen and Dörpen, Germany, lies the Emsland Transrapid Test Facility - a 31.5 km long elevated track built to test trains propelled by magnetic levitation - a form of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles using electromagnets to keep them floating just above the tracks.
The trains developed here have only been put into commercial operation once, between Pudong International Airport and Shanghai, but they've achieved speeds in excess of 500 km/h during testing, and in normal operation have a maximum speed of 431 km/h (268 mph).
The test track consists of two huge loops, one at Dörpen which is connected to the other at Lathen, and on the day these images were taken, a Transrapid is visible on the northern loop. Looks like it might be going pretty fast too.
Sadly the first ever fatal accident involving a Maglev train occurred at Lathen in September 2006, when a Transrapid train collided with a maintenance vehicle, killing 23 people.
Read more at Wikipedia about Magnetic levitation, Magnetically levitating trains, the Transrapid system, the Emsland test facility, the 2006 Lathen maglev train accident and the Shanghai Maglev Train.
Thanks to Winchester, Jan Brasna
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Well, what remains of the world’s first maglev can be seen here: View Placemark
Sadly, only the elevated track-bed remains at Birmingham Airport. The maglev was so far ahead of its time that there was no spare parts industry, and it had to shut down after only 11 years. A more conventional system with cable-drawn cars now runs in its place.
When leaving the Shanghai Station, the train is traveling so fast around the first curve, the force must make the train jump east from one track to the other. Either that or there was an earthquake, and I would avoid that train.
delb: It looks like the track has another, lighter colour – and a tricky perspective. If you inspect the tracks further, you can see this same colour on the northern track too.
Also interesting are the wind turbines in the area, such as here.
Why do you think the Transrapid train is running fast? It rather looks like some construction or maintenance work is going on here: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=52.960172,7.374396&z=18
Another feature of interest close to Dörpen is the large oval to the Northwest of the Maglev track; it is the ATP proving ground at Papenburg. Check out the shadow on the high speed oval at the south-west edge. That is caused because the outermost lane of the track is banked at about 50 degrees elevation from the ground! Driving round the curve in the outer lane, it is possible to drive at 250kph (approx 160mph) without a driver having to touch the steering wheel, because gravity approximately balances with the lateral accelaration of the car trying to throw it out of the curve as a result of the car’s “forward” motion; certainly not to be attempted by the faint of hearted!!!
Hopefully my attempt at linking will work;…
View Placemark (53.0288,7.5023)
The Birmingham Airport maglev vehicles are preserved, one at Railworld in Peterborough and the other at the NRM York.