ROCKET TRAIN - CUSHION RAIL

Cushion rail is a module-carrying vehicle designed to use wheels at low speeds, with an airfoil design to provide a lifting factor at high speeds, using "slippers" at its cruising speeds of 400-450 mph. Never stopping to pick up passengers, cargo, or mail, it would slow down to 100 mph as it ties in with a series of shuttle systems utilizing small module-carrying vehicles, synchronized in speed, locked together, on parallel tracks. The vehicle will resemble an aircraft more than a rail car and will be built to aircraft standards. It will be "locked" into track slots by means of "feet" that resemble pontoons. Cushion rail requires only 5 percent consumption of fuel for takeoff purposes and uses electric motors in the cities. Sound deflectors attached to the track make the system an ideal one for high speeds at ground level.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00256501
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Mechanical Engineers

  Two Park Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5990
• Authors:
  • Mann, W M
• Publication Date: 1971-12

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 40
• Serial:
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Publisher: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
  • ISSN: 0025-6501

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fuels; High speed rail; Motors; Pollution control; Railroad electrification; Railroad trains; Sound level; Technology; Vehicle design
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Old TRIS Terms: Car design; Rocket train-cushion rail development
• Subject Areas: Design; Energy; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00040009
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 22 1973 12:00AM