China reveals CRH 500 HST

[jbi]

Fresh off the production line, a train built to break records.

Theoretically capable of 500kmh travel

[jbi]

TheHeretic said:

For the UK to have anything remotely similar to that it would require massive investment not in trains, but in the tracks.

yup.. the Chinese use completely grade separated tracks which have very good alignment and no ballast

The tracks themselves are laser aligned and welded

[jbi]

TheHeretic said:

It is not that at all. The gauge of our tracks, and the way they wind through the country do not lend themselves to high speed lines.

Just to clarify... the chinese use standard gauge track just like we do.

Our problem is indeed the fact our current railways simply are not suited to high speed running and would need to be ripped up entirely and started again.

[jbi]

TheHeretic said:

Ah, I heard the opposite regarding the gauge, something about them being too narrow for the high speed stuff, and our tracks are basically too twisty and bendy to get to high speed. They did, I think, have a tilting train at one point, or came up with a design, or something, that alleviated the issue, but this was a few years ago. I'm no train buff.

The UK pioneered the tilting train technology to speed up through corners but I think it was scrapped due to technical problems and making passengers motion sick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_Tr...

Many successful tilting train designs have since been developed in other countries such as Japan and Italy who are more than happy to sell them back to us

[jbi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_welded_rai...

[jbi]

In china the peasants essentially "lease" the land from the local government as private ownerships not permitted.

They are still supposed to be compensated for their loss and re-housed, and the company responsible does indeed have to pay compensation to the residents through the local government.

however I would imagine the peasants don't get to see all off their money as the local party governments tend to be quite corrupt.

It is cheaper for the companies to build thousands of miles of elevated viaduct than to pay off the peasants/officials for their land.

[jbi]

shirt said:

Jimbo. said:

Given just how shoddy Chinese engineering can be, would anyone here want to do 500Km/h on it? I'll take my otherwise crappy C2C line if given the choice!

was just about to say similar. does anyone here buy/use chinese technology? would you want them to build you something capable of that speed which isn't supposed to blow up?

China has more high speed rail than the rest of the world combined and is spending more money on it than the rest of the world combined.

They have had one fatal accident which resulted in the semi-permanent reduction in speeds for all CRH trains until the ENTIRE network was inspected and every piece of rolling stock brought back in for detailed examination.

They are taking safety very very seriously and even installed a man in charge of the railways who is anti-rail and pro-airline

[jbi]

It's been spotted in the wild

[jbi]

Latest news suggests this particular example is running with 6 cars, and has an output of 22,800 kW

That's more than the V150 train which set the world record in 2007. It had 19,600 kW.

Edited by jbi on Tuesday 27th December 00:54

[jbi]

frosted said:

Isnt that train a cheap copy they stole of the germans?

no the earlier trains are copys... this is something new

[jbi]

Talksteer said:

In fact after starting services with headline grabbing speeds many of these trains have been slowed down to the same speeds used elsewhere in the 180-210mph speed range.

they will get a speed raise back up to 350km/hr soon enough... just watch this space

[jbi]

Talksteer said:

jbi said:

Talksteer said:

In fact after starting services with headline grabbing speeds many of these trains have been slowed down to the same speeds used elsewhere in the 180-210mph speed range.

they will get a speed raise back up to 350km/hr soon enough... just watch this space

Spain runs trains at 350kmh already and France will soon do as well, the point I was making was that I doubt we will see anything other than possibly a gradual improvement from this value.

The TGV was run at 500kmh over 20 years ago, there isn't a paradigm shift in technology which will get around the fact that you are trying to push a train through the horrible thick air at sea level altitudes. A plane at 30,000ft has less that 1/3 of the air density to contend with.

That TGV was specially modified with over sized bogies and was running two souped up power cars with NO carriages.

This train will run 500km/hr reliably with full commercial spec.

[jbi]

simonrockman said:

Agreed, and when I was in China a couple of years ago I was told that there were plans for a Beijing <-> Shanghai maglev aimed at replacing flying.

Simon

too expensive apparently... even the Chinese don't have limitless cash

[jbi]

Talksteer said:

The reason the TGV doesn't run at 260mph was because of the energy requirements, the elevated maintenance costs from wear on the catenary (and stretching), pantograph and rails, the noise, the requirement for larger brakes and increased stopping distance.

I would add geography and signalling technology to that list.

The Chinese trains have better alignment than the french TGV and will have better signalling as well, not to mention ballastless track and continuously welded rail.

No doubt maintenance will be increased for the higher speed trains, but the Chinese simply have better infrastructure, better trains and a larger/cheaper workforce with which to keep the whole shebang running.

The Chinese will be leading the sector in the coming years simply due to the huge fraction of the total market they will own.

[jbi]

that's a test train gathering data...

[jbi]

for your viewing pleasure... here's a few pics taken recently from the HSR system in china