Original subtitles

In this episode, the need for speed.

The unique challenges of making the world's railroads

run faster than ever...

When you see tiny, little pods moving at incredible speed

down these tubes, you can really see

why this could be the transport of the future.

And the ingenious solutions...

Without this fleet of trains,

the whole railway would grind to a halt.

That make the impossible possible.

It was to be among one of the fastest trains in America.

There's no doubt that this train captured the imagination.

Captions by vitac... www.vitac.com

captions paid for by discovery communications

since the invention of railroads over 150 years ago,

engineers have been pushing boundaries in the quest

to reach the world's most remote locations.

Inspired by progress and the desire for adventure,

trains are continuously breaking records

and traveling further and higher than ever before.

But for train engineers, making engineers go faster

poses a unique set of challenges.

The problem is, every time you go twice as fast,

air resistance becomes about four times more of a problem.

We needed to make the network a safer place,

and at speeds that don't delay

other passengers or freight trains.

Compared to other forms of transportation,

trains are easier to access and provide travelers

a way to avoid traffic jams.

But in the quest to go faster,

hitting high speeds can mean compromising

something pretty crucial if you're a passenger.

Few countries' histories have been more strongly shaped

by its railroads than the U.S.

By the 1950s, advancements in the aerospace

and automobile industries

captured the nation's imagination.

Americans were now looking to the future of engineering

and not the past.

Engineer Dan Dickrell is in Missouri

to track down the train that was designed for speed.

This is a 1947 Cadillac and an amazing example

of American automobiles of the time.

People were falling in love with this car and cars like it.

Why would you want to be packed into a crowded train

when you could be riding in a magnificent vehicle

such as this?

By the 1950s, the train was increasingly seen

as a slow and uncomfortable way to get around,

leaving it in real danger of being left behind.

The task of revolutionizing train travel

fell to general motors' legendary designer Chuck Jordan.

His solution... the aerotrain.

Named the train of the future,

its bold design aimed to entice passengers

to get back on board, making traveling by rail faster

and more comfortable than ever before.

So, this is it.

It's the aerotrain.

It's an unbelievable train.

This train was the big bet.

This was the thing that was gonna save the industry,

revitalize it, and make trains cool again,

make you want to ride on it.

The aerotrain was designed to tap into

the public's enthusiasm

for the futuristic styles being used by car manufacturers.

Looking at the similarities

between the aerotrain and the Cadillac,

it's obvious, the influence... The nose, the streamlining.

It looks almost identical.

Taking inspiration from the roads,

the train's passenger cars

were designed like vehicles of the time.

But developers had more up their sleeves

than producing a train with just updated external features.

One of the solutions was materials.

It was gonna be made of aluminum,

which was revolutionary

because most trains of the time were made of steel.

This made it very, very light.

At around half the weight of a conventional train,

the aerotrain was a speed machine,

able to reach nearly 100 miles per hour.

It looks fast... That beautiful nose,

that sweeping windscreen.

The 1,200-horsepower engine could get it up

to speed very quickly.

But in reality, it was a huge failure.

Unfortunately, what the aerotrain gained in style,

it lacked in functionality.

The engineering doesn't hold up.

This area right here, this...

This beautiful curve actually acts like an air scoop.

Air is forced in with nowhere to go, slowing the train down.

So it's an example of where the designers wanted

some really, really powerful visual statements.

The engineering says, "mnh-mnh."

This beautiful shape actually makes this train

go a lot slower.

But aerodynamics

wasn't the aerotrain's only issue.

The train's lightweight body led to some unfortunate consequences

for the passengers on board.

There was a big problem...

The cars themselves were so light

that the wheels had a hard time

staying on the rails at top speed,

so the passengers inside would be bounced around

like basketballs.

A problem intensified

by perhaps the most innovative design feature,

hidden behind the train's sleek bodywork.

So, instead of traditional coiled mechanical Springs,

the aerotrain had a system of pneumatic air bladders.

Actually, if you can look up here, you can see them.

They're positioned around the corners of the carriage.

Initially hailed as revolutionary,

the train's air ride suspension system would,

in theory, isolate passengers

from the effects of vibration and body roll.

The train was intended to literally float

on a cushion of air.

The pneumatic system of the aerotrain

is set up with pneumatic bladders underneath...

Air bladders...

Similar to these right here,

the idea being the bladders and a control-box system

could adapt to the conditions of the train...

The weight, how many passengers were...

Giving a tunable ride.

The aerotrain's suspension system

was another engineering advancement with huge potential

that, unfortunately, was left unrealized.

Got a board on top of very similar bladders.

Now, this board, as we can see, with a little bit of motion,

creates quite a... Quite a vibrational ride.

The quality of the ride is gonna be similar

to the water in this cup.

So, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna apply

a little bit of force here,

and what we can see is a little amount of force

creates a lot of displacement, sloshing the water around,

meaning that the passengers in this particular carriage

are being shaken all over the place.

A very unpleasant ride.

A design fault which could have been easily rectified

by making the train cars heavier,

but at the expense of speed.

Now, what this does... By adding the weights,

it effectively stiffens the Springs

in the suspension system... The air Springs...

By increasing the internal pressure,

creating a tension in the bladder.

With a stiffer suspension and the added weight,

the same amount of force applied creates less shaking,

less displacement.

The result is a more comfortable ride

for the passengers in the carriage.

Even though it never went into production,

the aerotrain's place in automotive history

has inspired train engineering of the future.

Thanks to the development

of its innovative air suspension system,

today, passengers are able to travel in comfort

and faster than ever before.

Well, there's no doubt that this train did do

what it was supposed to do,

but, actually, it did something much harder...

It captured the imagination.

So much that, even 60 years later,

the aerotrain still lives on in miniature version,

appearing in theme parks around the country.

People all over still love this train.

It's a remarkable train in terms of its appearance.

And even though, ultimately, it wasn't successful,

I'm glad they tried.

But designing trains to run fast is just one of the challenges

facing engineers in the need for speed.

It's quite intense today because we have some unexpected event.

Laying the tracks for them is another.

He can move and hurt somebody, so it's an operation

that you have to carry out with concentration.

Across the world,

trains are reaching great distances at high speeds.

Thanks to technological advancements,

engineers are testing the limits in the need

to make the planet's railroads run faster

and more efficient than ever before.

But in order to travel fast,

a train is only as a good as its tracks.

Great Britain.

A nation that relies heavily on speed

to keep its vast rail network moving.

Completing nearly 4.7 million trips a day,

London's trains cover over 21,500 miles of track.

But keeping this huge infrastructure

in working condition

is an enormous-yet-vital challenge.

Historically, rail lines were inspected manually,

creating delays

and causing an astonishing 1.3 million man-hours a year.

When I started in 2001,

we needed to test track more efficiently

and make the network a safer place,

and at speeds that don't delay

other passengers or freight trains.

But what could test the tens of thousands of miles of tracks

without disrupting one of the world's busiest rail networks?

The answer?

The new measurement train,

a 125-mile-per-hour speed machine,

more commonly known to locals as the "flying banana."

To anyone who may see this train race past,

only its distinctive color would suggest anything unusual,

but on board are some

of the most innovative systems in the world.

The new measurement train can test the infrastructure

all over the country at light speed,

which means, basically, we can put the train

inside other trains' paths.

That means we're not delaying passengers

or passenger trains...

We're keeping up with passenger trains.

Engineer Richard Wilkinson-Ford

is riding this specially converted intercity 125

as it conducts tests on a section of the track.

The new measurement train can do 'round about 1,000 mile a day.

So we're pretty well a 22-hour-a-day operation.

Equipped like a moving laboratory,

testing is made possible by unique,

cutting-edge gear designed to recognize faults

at a mind-blowing 125 miles per hour.

The four screens we have on the right-hand side here

are our plain line pattern recognition system.

We've got a very high-powered white light

shining down on the track and seven cameras.

We're taking individual photos every .8 of a millimeter.

That's an incredible 10,000 photos

taken every second.

We knit those photos together into almost a film

to identify where faults are on the track.

At super-high speeds, the flying banana's cameras,

lasers, and mechanical measurements

are able to recognize three critical track defects...

Twist... when one rail is raised or dropped,

causing the train to tilt...

A dip in the rail surface,

which causes wheels to bounce...

And inconsistent Gauge width,

which, left undetected, could lead to a derailment.

If a fault is picked up, the images are sent back to base

and analyzed for repair at a later date.

Alright, guys. Whereabouts are we?

But in the most serious cases,

a defect could be deemed as one needing immediate attention.

You will have a block-the-line fault,

which is quite a severe fault.

The system will give us an alert.

We'll stop the train, get down,

and actually talk to the signaler.

We're blocking the track, so no other trains can run,

and we're basically telling the guys to get out there

and get it repaired now because it's a dangerous defect.

To avoid these potentially devastating faults

going unseen,

maintenance engineer Roger gains

must ensure the flying banana's innovative equipment

is in perfect condition.

If you look, you can see there's a camera here

that points in this direction.

Then, you've got one that points directly above it,

and then another one that points on the other side of the rail.

And the same on the other side.

And then, you've got one camera in the middle,

and the system joins all those together to make one big,

long picture of the actual rail.

It also works together with another system...

A laser system, which is behind us.

And that takes 3-d images of the rail.

All those images are stored on computers above us

on this train.

And it looks at all the faults and can tell which ones

are proper faults and how dangerous it could be.

As it speeds around the nation, the game-changing flying banana

is transforming rail safety,

with track breakages reduced from approximately 1,000 a year

to just 100.

Without this fleet of trains,

the whole railway would probably grind to a halt.

This fleet is crucial to making the railway

more efficient and safer.

There is no question that track maintenance

is crucial to ensuring safe rail travel,

but repair work can only go so far

when it comes to keeping the world's railroads

running smoothly.

France.

A nation with the second-largest rail network in Europe.

15,000 trains speed through the country,

carrying 5 million passengers every day.

To keep up with the demand, this heavily used network

is under construction to restore nearly 2,000 miles of tracks.

But this critical job is one that has to be done fast,

taking place at night during a very small window

when traffic is at a minimum.

Engineer Karl Signer is part of a team near Maurienne,

just south of Lyon,

preparing to put in another intense track-renewal shift.

The team is expected to replace

almost a mile of track in the next seven hours.

It's a difficult operation

that starts with preparation of the line...

Cutting the existing steel track for removal.

It would take a team of 500

to replace the entire track by hand.

But with only hours left until sunrise,

Karl and his team will have to get the job done quickly,

and their solution... A 220-ton mega machine

that can replace up to a mile of track in one night.

In order for trains to run efficiently,

they must be maintained.

Tonight, engineer Karl signer and his team

are repairing a track near Maurienne, France...

a crucial component

of the rail-maintenance production system

that will allow passengers to get to their destinations

safely and on time.

The P95 track renewal machine is a 220-ton train

that can replace up to a mile of track in one night.

This 235-foot-long powerhouse is engineered to work

through the several stages of the track-renewal process.

First, the stripping.

As the train moves,

the old rail is pushed aside.

Then, the old ties, or sleepers,

are scooped out by a clawlike arm

and moved by a gantry crane to the rear of the train.

The ballast is leveled out.

New concrete ties are collected

and moved to the front of the train,

where a conveyor belt delivers them into position.

Finally, the new rail is moved into place.

As the train continues to move on to a new section,

the team bolts everything together.

As this mighty machine moves along,

it prepares the line for the new rail.

Tonight's work is part of a bigger plan

to upgrade half of France's entire network by 2024,

so working at full speed is critical.

But with only half of the job done,

there's a problem that even the P95 can't overcome.

Without the power lines cut,

the cranes on top of the P95 machine

can't move the new ties into place.

This step is crucial to ensure that the trains are running

and on time for the first stop of the day.

In just a few hours,

the first trains of the day will be approaching.

It's a tense night for the crew.

But, finally, the power is cut,

and the P95 makes up some serious ground.

Oh!

As tonight's window of opportunity closes,

the P95 performs successfully,

an unsung hero of the railroad network

reaching its seemingly impossible target once again.

When it comes to reaching high speeds,

engineers are striving to push the boundaries

when looking to the future

and creating the world's most extreme railroads.

Right now is a really cool time

because we have multiple solutions

for a number of our engineering problems,

and now it's piecing all of those together.

When you see some of the footage of these experimental tracks,

some of the tiny, little pods moving at incredible speed

down these tubes,

you can really see why their creators think

this could be the transport of the future.

Since the beginning, railroad engineers

have been driven by one thing...

The need for speed.

From streamlined designs

to sheer power...

The world's innovators have tried everything in the quest

to make trains go faster.

The question is, what's next?

The need for speed has pushed designers

to create some of the fastest trains ever built,

but there are two obstacles that stand in the way

of achieving this ultimate ambition for speed...

Air resistance and friction.

The first problem is the friction

between the train and the track...

Those steel wheels rubbing against the steel track,

heating up, and causing energy to be lost.

The faster you go, the bigger these problems become.

And air resistance is even worse.

Every time you go twice as fast,

air resistance becomes about four times more of a problem.

In order to tackle the joint problems of friction

and air resistance as we travel ever more quickly,

engineers are gonna have to come up

with some ingenious solutions.

Deep in the Nevada desert,

one design company believes their experimental project

may be the answer.

Their solution?

The Virgin Hyperloop One.

Using magnetically levitated pods propelled up to 620 miles

per hour through a low-pressure tube,

it's an entirely new breed of super-fast vehicle.

When you see some of the footage of these experimental tracks,

some of the tiny, little pods moving at incredible speed

down these tubes,

you can really see why their creators think

this could be the transport of the future.

Making it all possible is a team of engineers

based in Los Angeles

led by project engineering manager Kristen hammer.

Hyperloop one is building a new form of transportation.

We're going two to three times as fast as high-speed rail.

And the ingenious system dramatically reduces the forces

that slow traditional transport down.

By using magnets mounted to the pod

that repel against the metal track to create lift,

the carriages ride on a cushion of air.

It uses magnetic levitation,

or Maglev, to float slightly above the steps of the track,

eliminating all of that contact force.

We don't have friction from wheels,

so it allows us to go really fast...

Upwards of 1,000 kilometers an hour.

There's no bumps in your ride.

There's no turbulence.

It's none of the discomfort that you associate

with the uncomfortable parts of other travel.

But without an engine that drives wheels along a track,

an alternative method of propulsion is required.

Incredibly, they're using groundbreaking technology

pioneered by professor Eric Laithwaite.

When switched on, this machine will levitate itself

above this aluminium sheet and also propel itself along.

Switch on.

This is a scale model of a high-speed transport system.

We don't yet know how good this system would be

if it were scaled up to full size.

Physicist Andrew Steele has traveled to a facility

located in England's Midlands,

where they're helping to make Laithwaite's dreams a reality.

This is a linear induction motor test track.

It's essentially a scaled-down version

of what they're proposing to put in the Hyperloop.

And it's effectively a rolled-out version

of one of these... A rotary induction motor,

the sort that you might find in an electric car

or driving your washing machine at home.

This motor is made up of two main components...

The stator, which is this bit 'round the outside,

and the rotor... This bit in the middle

that spins 'round. Hence, the name.

The stator is made up of a load

of overlapping coils of copper wire.

And when you pass a current through those coils,

it induces a magnetic field,

which actually rotates around inside the motor.

Now, that rotating magnetic field

induces an electric current again inside the rotor,

which is made up of metal plates.

And that means that the rotor is effectively constantly

being attracted and repelled.

That causes the motor to spin around.

Now, if you want to create a linear motor,

rather than rotating the rotor,

instead of accelerating it along in a straight line,

what you need to do is get this stator

and roll it out into a straight line,

and that's exactly what we've got over here.

You can see we've just got these huge loads of copper coils,

loads and loads of copper wire wrapped around

and around to generate a magnetic field,

and then, here, we have,

effectively, our model Hyperloop.

Now, this one doesn't Maglev.

It just goes along on these wheels here.

And then, in the middle, we've got a big aluminium plate,

and that's literally all it is... a piece of metal.

And when those magnets are turned on,

then they generate the magnetic field in the metal,

and that magnetic field is what fires that metal down

to the other end of the track.

So, let's give this thing a go.

Wow!

Did you see the speed of that thing?

So you can just imagine, if you had kilometers and kilometers

of these linear motors, how fast you could go.

This is just such a simple, elegant piece of technology...

No moving parts and such incredible acceleration.

That was amazing.

Thanks to linear induction...

It's now possible to move extremely fast

without any contact with the track.

But developing new ways to increase train speed

comes with its own unique set of challenges.

Now engineers needed to develop a solution

to overcome a natural force... Wind resistance.

The answer is contained within the Nevada test track

known as the Devloop.

The pod is propelled through a tube

where most of the air is removed,

so we're at enough of a vacuum

to give us an aerodynamic advantage,

but not so much of a vacuum

that it's very difficult or expensive to maintain.

By using simple vacuum pumps to reduce the density of air

inside the Devloop, the pod can move

in more favorable atmospheric conditions,

similar to an aircraft.

What that does is reduces the air resistance.

It reduces the amount of air that individual carriages

have to push out of the way,

and that dramatically reduces the amount of force

you need to accelerate it and maintain those high speeds.

And the potential benefits

of this super-fast travel are equally exciting.

A journey that would normally take you hours

is taking you minutes,

and you really don't need to plan your entire day

around your travel, because the time taken to travel

is so much less than what we're used to right now.

It's an enticing vision...

And one that is due to arrive as early as the mid-2020s.

Thanks to Kristen and the rest of her engineering team,

the future looks fast.

Right now is a really cool time

because we have multiple solutions

for a number of our engineering problems,

and now it's piecing all of those together.

Where the first route goes

is not necessarily 100% certain yet,

but I plan to travel to wherever it is

and get my ride in with everyone else.

For some trains, the need for speed

is only one part of the equation.

The solution?

Build more extreme railroads.

Speed... the driving force

behind some of the world's greatest railroads.

The need to make trains run faster than ever before

poses engineers with unique challenges...

Requiring the most inventive solutions.

And there's one country leading the race.

Spain.

Famed for its historic and thriving cities,

iconic centers of commerce all sharing one goal...

A need to be connected to each other at high speed.

But standing in the way

is a seemingly impossible geographical problem.

Spain is one of Europe's most mountainous nations.

Engineer Jon Veitch is very familiar

with the elevated landscape.

Spain has some really interesting terrains.

Engineers love these problems to solve.

So engineers were given a challenge to, obviously,

deliver a very high-speed network.

Some of these routes went through mountainous areas.

That brought some challenges in the train technology,

the infrastructure technology.

The only way to conquer this terrain is to twist

and turn around the obstacles that stand in the way.

But such frequent and tight cornering is the enemy of speed.

So, Spain, with its geographically spread areas,

cities, regions, and the real drive to really drive economy,

bring people closer together, needed a solution.

Madrid to Seville has historically been a key route.

But with the Sierra Morena mountains in its path,

a dated single-track rail system

restricted train speeds to around 60 miles per hour.

In the 1990s, a new twin track was built to accommodate

this need for speed,

but it still had to compensate

for a similarly twisty mountainous route.

The solution... the Talgo 350.

This extraordinary-looking locomotive

has helped to revolutionize train travel across Spain...

overcoming the demanding landscapes,

cutting travel times, and connecting cities.

So, here I am

with one of the Talgo very high-speed train sets.

Been operating since 1994, 8 megawatts,

operating up to 330 kilometers per hour.

It's an engineering marvel

that's packed with high-speed innovations.

So, a Talgo train has a very distinctive nose end,

sometimes referred to as a duck face,

but, indeed, it's all about the aerodynamics

and reducing noise through structures,

tunnels to achieve those very high-speed things.

The reducing noise is a key element of a Talgo train.

The only way to really understand the Talgo's speed

is by riding it.

It's so different to anything else I've ever experienced

in over 30 years' experience across the world.

We've now departed from Madrid,

and we're moving gently towards operational speed,

which will be around 300 kilometers per hour.

To navigate along the route through the mountains to Seville

while still maintaining such speeds,

the Talgo has an ingenious approach to tackling curves.

We have a lower center of gravity,

so, obviously, the coaches are suspended

in a very simple way in a vertical situation.

And then, the weight actually balances lower,

so it enables the coach to swing.

This tilting system acts like a pendulum,

which relies on a pair of air-suspension cylinders

and two straight bars that are mounted vertically

at one end of each carriage.

When the train enters a corner,

the lower center of gravity lets the coach move outwards,

allowing for faster speeds.

As the lateral force from cornering acts on the train,

one spring is compressed while the other expands,

creating a pendulum-like swinging motion

that allows the train to tilt into the curve

and maintain higher speed.

The faster the train runs, the more it will tilt

and the more the lateral forces are compensating.

In addition to its innovative tilting system

for tackling corners at top speed,

the Talgo has another trick up its sleeve.

Known for its unique design,

Talgo trains have revolutionized our need for speed.

Whereas most trains contain a fixed-axle system,

the Talgo uses a system in which each wheel rotates

at different speeds.

This remarkable technology allows the train

to go up to 25% faster around curves than conventional cars.

Deputy manufacturing director Jos� Palomo explains

how the Talgo's technology functions in more detail.

By having independent mono-axles,

the wheels can travel around curves at the speeds they need,

not resisting against the track.

With Talgo's innovations,

the journey between Madrid and Seville

is cut from 7 hours to 2 hours and 20 minutes,

thanks to its incredible technology, speed,

and attention to comfort.

Nearly 3 million people are riding the Talgo per year.

The two founding members of Talgo thought, actually,

"how can we go fast around curves,

but actually maintaining the safety, the integrity,

and, indeed, the lightweightness?"

Which was always against traditional railway technology,

which is heavier, more powerful things to make things go faster

and more structurally safe.

But, no, they overcame that challenge

and revolutionized high-speed travel.

And that revolution is set to continue.

By 2020, Spain plans to have over 6,200 miles

of high-speed line,

making its network the largest in Europe.

Having worked and lived across the world

and traveled and worked with many types of trains,

for me, these are the epitome of success,

and I am thrilled to be part of this.

Driven by the need for speed,

railroad engineers are pushing boundaries like never before...

creating thrilling train experiences...

And breaking records across the globe

with incredible innovations.

Oh, I absolutely love it. Live and breathe it.

This is just making such a positive change.

And just this technology, for me, is a real proud moment.

It amazes me

that we keep this fleet of trains constantly out there,

making the railway a safer place.

And engineers are continuing to come up

with new ways to feed their need for speed...

To build the world's most extreme railroads.

Look at it.

It's such a special train.

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