Thursday, June 13, 2002
Train Spotting - Platform Tickets - Steam Engines
I've always had a special fascination with trains. I can still recall the exciting smell of the big London train stations of my youth. After having endulged myself later in life by travelling across the Canadian Rockies in a 'dome' car, taking the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee, and riding the NYC Subway to Coney Island, I still dream about monorails and magnetic levitation trains.
These fast, futuristic trains have been a staple of my science-fiction reading for decades. There now seems to be some hope that they will really come into commercial use. A German design is being built in Shanghai, China, and Central Japan Railways has a test track running public trials.
And here's an idea I wish I'd thought of. As a kid riding the London tube (subway) I used to stare straight out the window, watching the wires and cables, which were attached horizontally to the tunnel walls, appear to move, snaking up and down as the train sped between stations. Now an advertising company, Submedia, has developed a somewhat similar idea using technology of illuminated boxes attached to the subway wall which present incremental images, like a flip-book, to passengers travelling inside the train. As a result the passengers see a movie through the train's windows promoting the advertiser's message. See this video about the system in action.
These fast, futuristic trains have been a staple of my science-fiction reading for decades. There now seems to be some hope that they will really come into commercial use. A German design is being built in Shanghai, China, and Central Japan Railways has a test track running public trials.
And here's an idea I wish I'd thought of. As a kid riding the London tube (subway) I used to stare straight out the window, watching the wires and cables, which were attached horizontally to the tunnel walls, appear to move, snaking up and down as the train sped between stations. Now an advertising company, Submedia, has developed a somewhat similar idea using technology of illuminated boxes attached to the subway wall which present incremental images, like a flip-book, to passengers travelling inside the train. As a result the passengers see a movie through the train's windows promoting the advertiser's message. See this video about the system in action.
