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D-Roc
10-15-2008, 12:51 PM
Broyles compares the elevator incident to the Maglev Train Disaster in Tokyo 9 months earlier.

I was wondering whether this was another real-life tie-in that the creators sometimes do. There was a Maglev (Magnetic Levitation Train) disaster in Germany 2006:


LATHEN, Germany - A high-tech train that floats on powerful magnetic fields smashed into a maintenance car on an elevated test track Friday, killing 23 people and injuring 10 - the first fatalities on a maglev train.
Initial indications were that human error, not sophisticated maglev technology, was to blame for putting the maintenance vehicle on the track at the same time as the Transrapid train. The train was moving at 125 mph but can reach speeds of up to 270 mph.


The speeding train's low nose scooped up the maintenance car, hurling it against the front and along the roof of the sleek, advanced train. Rescuers had to climb fire ladders and use cranes to reach the 13-foot-high track to clear debris and retrieve the dead and injured. Seats and other wreckage were left strewn beneath the track.


Maglev trains - short for magnetic levitation - use powerful magnets that allow the train to skim along its guideway without touching it, reducing friction and increasing speeds. The Transrapid, which floats about half an inch on a cushion of magnetism, was made by Transrapid International, a joint venture between Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp AG.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/international/666977/maglev_train_crash_in_germany_kills_23/index.html

However I couldn't find any info on such an event happening in Tokyo in 2007, so the one Broyles mensitons must be made up, and only based on the Germany event.

Rekka
02-22-2010, 07:58 AM
Actually, when I re-watched this episode recently, I caught that line... and just to let you know, there are NO mag-lev trains in Tokyo.

There is only one mag-lev train in Japan and that's RIGHT HERE in Aichi, it's called the Linimo (short for Linear Motorcar). I used to ride on it all the time, going to work. It was built to better transport people to and from the 2005 World Expo that was held in Nagakute a smaller town just east of Nagoya.

There is talk of a new shinkansen (bullet train) that is based off of this same technology but it needs the special magnetic tracks...which will cost a TON OF MONEY to build, so I doubt we'll see that any time soon.