Bullet Trains: why are they Taboo? Posted by Bernard in another forum

[Martijn Meerts]

Few trains beat a 16-car 0 series to get some instant recognition and ooohhs and aaahhs :)

 

 

Jeff, if my E5 arrives in time, and if no one else from JRM ordered one, I can bring mine to the festival, see what kind of response it gets :). (supposed to be released early March...)

 

 

Martijn, I'm ashamed of you !!!  Nothing beats a 16-car 0 series !!!   

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

How about.... TWO 16-car shinkansen? =)

[EWS60008]

Now that would be an Epic Shinkansen if they were coupled together! .

[keitaro]

bit of modifications needed there hah!

[cteno4]

well actually the 700 is the best, but that aside, if we have the e5 we will have every shinkansen main model represented.

 

for 16car we have

 

0

100

300

500 (2)

700 (2)

n700

E4

 

then full sets for

 

922 (2, 4 7 car)

923

E1

E2

E3

400

700 railstar

 

200 6 car set (2)

200-1000 10 car

 

so we will have the full selection for the public to find the one they like the best! Dr yellow seems to always be the favorite, but that may just be the yellow as both 0 and 700 are really liked about the same. 0 classic lines, 700 more the spaceship...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Mudkip Orange]

Witness the Acela

 

The Acela is kind of an oddity because it's the end result of a lot of historical path-dependence that doesn't really apply in the rest of the country.

 

The Acela only made sense because you already had the Metroliner infrastructure set up for 125mph, so it was an incremental improvement to extend the catenary to Boston and order some fancy trains. As it is the Acela schedules between NYC and DC aren't substantially different from the express trains of 30 years ago.

 

In turn, the Metroliner only made sense because you already had the Pennsy electrification set up for 100mph, which had been that way since the 1930s. (There are flying crossovers near Wilmington with ancient "85" and "90" speed restriction placards hanging over them).

 

Whereas everywhere else in the US, even if you had electrification at one point, it's gone now. And even if you had four tracks at one point, they're gone now. So to get to an Acela level of service in a place like, say, California, or Texas, you'd have to *first* pay to add the tracks to hold the additional level of service, *then* pay to electrify them, *then* pay for trainsets to run on them. In short you're basically starting from scratch regardless, except that (i) the trains are heavier, since they have to meet FRA crashworthiness standards, (ii) the tracks are more expensive, because they have to support the heavier trains, and (iii) the electrification is beefier, because it has to support the additional current draw of all those heavy trains.

 

Hence every state that's had a serious HSR proposal (Cali, Florida, Texas in the 90's) it was separate and non-FRA compliant.

 

I do see Acela-type service as being a long-term possibility in the Pacific Northwest. Up there you have a shortage of buildable land for new alignments, and every tree you cut down is going to draw out environmental protest groups, so ultimately it might be cheaper to four-track an existing railroad in segments (with a bunch of FONSIs) then do a new alignment with a bunch of supplement revised draft FEIS submissions and 20 years of lawsuits.

[Mudkip Orange]

Of course this is all speculation. The US will be an interesting patchwork system regardless...

[Spaceman Spiff]

I am a member of an N scale club in Canada in which all the members except myself run prototypical North American of many era's. I also have North Am equipment of the modern era such as AC4400 and SD90 units. Since beginning this hobby I have had a Kato TGV POS. I have personally rode on it I thought why not? Our club is on public display at a shopping mall and we go to shows. The TGV always received positive comments even though it runs on a North Am layout. The club members have never been negative toward me running my high speed stuff even if I am following Thomas the Tank engine or a Big Boy Steam at slow speed lol. They have even been kind enough to let me have a main line to myself so I can run them wide open. Since joining this forum last fall I have been on a high speed buying binge and bought Shinkansen 0 Series (Tomix), 800 Series (Kato), 100 Series (Kato with expansion set + 2 cars), AVE (Kato) and TGV Duplex (Kato).

 

So what if these trains are prototypical in North America? The trains run great and the public enjoy them.  Run them on any layout prototypical or not. It's your hobby enjoy it. Bottom line is life is short if you like Bullets run them, who cares what others think about them and what layouts you run them on. 

 

Looking forward to buying more Japanese trains before my wife kills me.

 

Spiff