To maglev trains
Ugly duck:P
Ron Tremblay said:
Ugly duck:P
Doesn’t look very elegant, but it moves considerably faster than any of the trains on this continent.
This is brought to you by my train computer, the other one is busy uploading part 2 of the Jasper trip
When I lived in Tokyo, I used to go home with a colleague some weekends to Kyoto on the 500 or 700 Shinkansen. THAT was faster than most things that move on the ground without taking off…
Factette - did you know that the Japanese National Railway - JNR - runs on 3ft 6in aka Cape Gauge? And that the Shinkansen runs on Standard Gauge?
Just sayin’.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Some day folks will know how to spell the correct word for track gage. Yep Gage. Later RJD
Yeah, really!? Gage is a variant of Gauge, variants are not commonly used in formal writing.
Which would prove your point; not much formal writing on fora - nor spelling, grammatic or punctuation.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gauge
I picked the “free dictionary” on the basis of it having both American and English intonations of the word.
I hope that is satisfactory.
try the phonics dicshunary
Edit: only kidding, I just abbreviate to ga.
My French/English dictionnaire has the following entry, translated for those of you who did not have French forced on them as a child -
Gauge - distance between two wheels on a common axle - the distance between two rails on a railway or tramway - from Old French - jauge.
Also - Gauge/jauge - [Med.] an armoured or chain-mail glove that covers the hand and evelops the lower part of the forearm. As in ‘hee caste down hysse gauge in challenge to fyte to the dethe’. etc. Mallory - Morte d’Arthur.
Gage - There exists no entry a word using this spelling.
However, I note that the Cadillac Gage Co. Inc was responsible for the manufacture of certain wheeled armoured vehicles in th latter half of the last century.
Thomas Gage was a General in the British Army who was outclassed by civilian militia at Lexington, Concord and later at Bunker (Breed’s) Hill. He was recalled to England in disgrace.
Sorry, TAC, but we all have them, don’t we? George McMlellan comes to mind.
gage1
/geɪdʒ/
archaic
noun
noun: gage; plural noun: gages
1.
a valued object deposited as a guarantee of good faith.
a pledge, especially a glove, thrown down as a symbol of a challenge to fight.
verb
verb: gage; 3rd person present: gages; past tense: gaged; past participle: gaged; gerund or present participle: gaging
1.
offer (an object or one’s life) as a guarantee of good faith.
“a guide sent to them by the headman of this place gaged his life as a forfeit if he failed”
Maybe when one ‘gets engaged’ to a young woman this is where the word might originate.
There is also the fruit:
The greengages, also known as the Reine Claudes, are a cultivar of the common European plum.
The first true greengage was bred in Moissac, France, from a green-fruited wild plum (‘Canerik’) originally found in Asia Minor; the original greengage cultivar nowadays survives in an almost unchanged form as Reine Claude Verte’.
The Oxford English Dictionary regards “gage” and “greengage” as synonyms.[1] However, not all gages are green, and some horticulturalists make a distinction between the two words, with greengages as a variety of the gages, scientifically named Prunus domestica subsp. italica var. claudiana. The gages (P. d. ssp. italica) otherwise include the large and usually purple to blackish but occasionally bright yellow round plums (var. subrotunda, e.g. the Ontario plum), as well as the ancient and little-known Austrian varieties Punze (var. rotunda) and Weinkriech (var. vinaria).
A bit of everything for all tastes there.
(pun intended)
This has turned into a stupendous off-topic thread considering the initial post was about Maglev trains. lol
Yeah well, that’s what happens when less than substantiated comments are added.
Now on those mag-lev trains, is it possible that the very idea sprung from a circus act?
Maglev’s were a political circus act
America paid for the majority of that technology and then scrapped the idea, thanks to DC
Steve Featherkile said:
Thomas Gage was a General in the British Army who was outclassed by civilian militia at Lexington, Concord and later at Bunker (Breed’s) Hill. He was recalled to England in disgrace.
Sorry, TAC, but we all have them, don’t we? George McMlellan comes to mind.
Then you can’t forget mention of Gen. Ambrose Burnside.
How could I forget ol’ Sideburns hisself? 