Maglev (chuo shinkansen) breaks speed record

[kvp]

 

I'm sure wheel and rail noise is also an increasing issue with speed, but I'v not heard a lot on that with the faster trains lately. Perhaps someone here knows something on this.

 

Rail and wheel noise mostly comes from two sources. The clicking noise comes from rail joins and turnouts, which can be eliminated with continously welded rail and high speed turnouts with movable frogs. The other sound is the squeeking noise of the flanges during tight turns, which are eliminated by using large radius curves where the flanges don't touch the rails at all. All of these are in use on the shinkansen network. For every curve, there is a maximal safe speed, an absolute maximal speed and a much lower maximal quiet speed, where the conical shape of the wheels guide the trains without the use of the flanges. Shinkansens tend to run around the maximal quiet speed, since this also eliminates the non rolling wheel-rail contact on the flanges and that allows greater speeds with less energy and a much smoother ride. The shinkansen network were designed to allow this from the start.

 

The other sounds are the traction motors and the brakes. Modern versions are only noisy during acceleration and deceleration, so for high speed running over large distances this isn't a big issue and the usage of modern traction and brake systems create even less noise.

 

Third we have aerodynamic noise, mainly the sound of air being pushed around and the noise it makes when it collides with lineside objects. Modern shinkansens were designed to push most air upwards, meaning very little lineside wind and noise.

 

For a maglev, the only remaining noise source is the air around the train, since every propulsion component is a non moving electromagnetic device, which can operate almost completly silently.

[bikkuri bahn]

*I don't like linking to JT articles, I dislike that rag, but they do offer translated articles from proper newspapers, including this:

JR Tokai begins landowner negotiations for maglev train line

With construction of a magnetically levitated train line connecting Tokyo to Osaka via Nagoya in the works, Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) has started negotiating with landowners for property rights around Nagoya Station.

Sectional property rights will determine how far below ground a landowner’s boundaries extend.

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/26/national/jr-tokai-begins-landowner-negotiations-for-maglev-train-line/#.VkMGoLvovmJ