I thought this might be a place to post anything where’s there is more to a story.
I bring you a story of intrigue, self steering and hunting that just might become a story of the past.
Bill;
Interesting information, but maglev would be tough to model, and Heaven only knows what would get pulled from one’s pockets once the system was working!
Regards, David Meashey
Bill;
While it may be hard to believe, I have been giving some serious thought on how one could make a model of a maglev train. Obviously miniaturizing maglev technology could be cost prohibitive, but something similar already exists. Here in the USA we have a table game called “Air Hockey”. Rather gliding on ice, the “rink” is a material similar to Masonite with thousands of tiny holes drilled into it. The “puck” is made of an ultra-light material, such as Styrofoam, and floats on a cushion of air from a relatively strong fan beneath the board that makes up the rink.
Now, what if the model maglev track were made like an Air Hockey board, only all the holes were drilled pointing in the same direction at a 45 degree angle? The train would also have to be made of an ultra-liight material, such as Styrofoam, but covered/sealed with a very thin plastic skin that had the details printed on it (like the old tinplate toy trains). Trains could only run one way along their track, but I suppose they could really scoot on that cushion of air!
Don’t expect me to build one; I don’t have the tooling to do it. I do think that technology would work, however. My other idea involved cryogenics, but I think it would get prohibitively expensive in a hurry.
Best, David Meashey
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Cliff;
Neat train set. The price is really not too bad, about the same as some small to medium sized large scale electric powered locomotives (or a very small live steamer. like Dora). The built-in station announcements are a bit clashing to my ears though. Hope it has a mute feature!
Best, David Meashey