HIGH-SPEED- RAIL, from the “Rocket” to the “Bullet” The Speed Race on Rails from 1829 to 2007

The speed race with wheels on rails started October 1829 with 42 kmph at a competition at Rainhill near Liverpool with the Steam Locomotive “Rocket” build by Robert Stephenson. 1890 a Steam-Locomotive reached between Paris and Larode in France 132 kmph. On 02 nd July 1907 the that time world record for Steam Locomotives had been reached in Germany with 154.5 kmph by a Locomotive build by Krauss Maffai in Munich after on 27 th October 1903 an electric Tram-Car had reached already near Berlin in Germany 210 kmph. In the 1940-ties it had been claimed in USA that the Class 1 Steam Locomotive of Pennsylvania Rail Road had exceeded 156 mph (251 km/h) on the Fort Wayne-Chicago Railroad, documented by Cabin Personnel. On a test run the Shinkansen reached in Japan 1993 425 kmph. And finally on 03-04- 2007 a special prepared TGV reached in France the record mark of 574.8 kmph.
As Pioneer for High-Speed Rails applies the German Professor Franz Kruckenberg (1882-1964). Franz Kruckenberg was an engineer and pioneer of High-Speed Railway Systems.He designed several technical Features used nowadays for High-Speed Trains. His most famous design was the Aero Rail Car, called “Schienen-Zeppelin” from 1931, propelled by an Airscrew. Since the Tokaido Shinkansen was inaugurated in October 1964, trains are nowadays operating at 250 or more kmph in 13 countries, over a cumulative network totaling over 30 000 km with over half of this in China. China expects to have 2025 38.000 km High-Speed Lines. With High-Speed Trains the energy efficiency per passenger/km is significant better than that of private cars or planes. Land-use is about one third of that required for a motorway with similar capacity. But the capital investment can be huge depending on the topography and can cost more than 30 m US Dollar per km. The capital cost for a typical 300 to 400 seat train-set lies in the range of 33 to 44 m US Dollar, with maintenance costs of about 1.1 m US Dollar per year.

To read more download the following Feature Article:
HIGH-SPEED-RAIL – The Speed Race on Rail