Bulletguy Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 I've seen many oddball items for sale on eBay but this has to be the most unusual. The Maglev railway built in the 1980's to shuttle passengers between Birmingham railway station and the Airport. Closed in 1995 as it was too expensive to run. Up for grabs is a carriage. The only one left so whoever is the successful bidder will own this unique piece of British engineering! Makes you proud to be British eh?(lol) Bidding started last night at £50 and its currently at a staggering £21,100!! Still has nine days left to run so you've got plenty of time to get bidding! (lol) Just goes to show that even in a recession there are plenty of folk out there with more cash than sense! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAGLEV-/190469358831?pt=UK_Collectables_OtherTransportation_RL&hash=item2c58dbc4ef#ht_792wt_932
Bulletguy Posted November 17, 2010 Author Posted November 17, 2010 Blimey!! In the time it took me to write that it's gone up another £500 to £21,600!!
Guest peter Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 I'll wait 'till the last 20 Sec's before I start bidding. :D
flicka Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 Bulletguy - 2010-11-17 7:38 PM I've seen many oddball items for sale on eBay but this has to be the most unusual. The Maglev railway built in the 1980's to shuttle passengers between Birmingham railway station and the Airport. Closed in 1995 as it was too expensive to run. Up for grabs is a carriage. The only one left so whoever is the successful bidder will own this unique piece of British engineering! Makes you proud to be British eh?(lol) Bidding started last night at £50 and its currently at a staggering £21,100!! Still has nine days left to run so you've got plenty of time to get bidding! (lol) Sorry to burst your bubble Bulletguy, but it didn't close because it was too expensive to run. It was problems with the design & engineering reliability. From "Wikipedia" The first commercial Maglev "people-mover" was officially opened in 1984 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. It operated on an elevated 600-metre (2,000 ft) section of monorail track between Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station, running at speeds up to 42 km/h (26 mph); the system was eventually closed in 1995 due to reliability and design problems.
nowtelse2do Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 Surely Flicka, if it was a reliability problem and a Design problem, then it must have been to expensive to run due to breakdowns and too expensive to rectify.Dave
Bulletguy Posted November 18, 2010 Author Posted November 18, 2010 flicka - 2010-11-17 9:57 PM Sorry to burst your bubble Bulletguy, but it didn't close because it was too expensive to run. It was problems with the design & engineering reliability. From "Wikipedia" You've answered your own statement. It was basically a prototype and that was the problem. No idea exactly how many were made but not very many. This made parts extremely difficult to source and prohibitively expensive to replace. It was replaced with a bus service....tried, tested, proven.....and therefore cheap to run.
flicka Posted November 18, 2010 Posted November 18, 2010 Badly worded on my part. :$ It was meant to be a tongue in cheek comment regarding Bulletguy's "British engineering! Makes you proud to be British " :D :D
Dave Newell Posted November 18, 2010 Posted November 18, 2010 "It was replaced with a bus service....tried, tested, proven.....and therefore cheap to run" Not true I'm afraid, there is still an elevated rail connection (even if its no longer a "maglev" between Birmingham international rail station and Birmingham International Airport, its clearly visible on Google Earth and I've ridden it on more than one occasion in the last decade. for a bonus of ten points can anyone name the inventor of the "Maglev" system without resorting to Google? D.
Mel B Posted November 18, 2010 Posted November 18, 2010 Alfred Zehden ... and I didn't Google ... .... ..... ....... ......... I Yahoo'd!!! :D
Bulletguy Posted November 18, 2010 Author Posted November 18, 2010 Dave Newell - 2010-11-18 8:44 PM "It was replaced with a bus service....tried, tested, proven.....and therefore cheap to run" Not true I'm afraid, there is still an elevated rail connection (even if its no longer a "maglev" between Birmingham international rail station and Birmingham International Airport D. Quite true actually. There is a bus shuttle connection to the Airport........unless of course you disagree with Birmingham International Airports own website. There is also the "SkyRail" which is a train. One of those things that runs on rails. Been around a few years now. (lol)
Brambles Posted November 19, 2010 Posted November 19, 2010 Mel B - 2010-11-18 8:48 PM Alfred Zehden ... and I didn't Google ... .... ..... ....... ......... I Yahoo'd!!! :D Yes, he invented a feasible model, but in fact I believe it was Eric Laithwaite at the Imperial College in London who developed the first full-size practical working model in the late 1940's. I remember this bit of history because at school for a project I studied and built a levitating linear induction motor. It was awesome. I got a lot of advice from Eric Laithwaite on the project and whilst it was impressive when demonstated the most impressive result was when I finally sorted out a power supply issue and on test with a very short aluminium test track which was not bolted down took off across the room and embedded itself in the far wall. I carried on the project at university to develope better electronic power controls for it and all the bits are are sitting in my shed to this day, sadly rusting away. I suppose it true to say it was this project which started me on my career, but I always had a fascination for Professor Laithwaite's work on Linear levitation induction motors.
Dave Newell Posted November 19, 2010 Posted November 19, 2010 Spot on Brambles, I remember seeing his Christmas lecture one year and I was absolutely fascinated by it. D.
Brambles Posted November 19, 2010 Posted November 19, 2010 Dave, I remember his Christmas lectures as well. Brilliant, as he just seemed to make them so interesting. His Christmas lectures were the first ones I ever watched on TV. Jon.
thebishbus Posted November 19, 2010 Posted November 19, 2010 Hi. The Maglev replacement rail link, is actually a Doppelmayr cable driven car. 8-) Brian B.
Dave Newell Posted November 19, 2010 Posted November 19, 2010 Bulletguy - 2010-11-18 9:11 PM Dave Newell - 2010-11-18 8:44 PM "It was replaced with a bus service....tried, tested, proven.....and therefore cheap to run" Not true I'm afraid, there is still an elevated rail connection (even if its no longer a "maglev" between Birmingham international rail station and Birmingham International Airport D. Quite true actually. There is a bus shuttle connection to the Airport........unless of course you disagree with Birmingham International Airports own website. There is also the "SkyRail" which is a train. One of those things that runs on rails. Been around a few years now. (lol) Sorry BG but it is NOT true, the MAGLEV was not replaced by a bus service, it was replaced by a new high level rail link AND a bus service ;-) D.
Bulletguy Posted November 20, 2010 Author Posted November 20, 2010 Dave Newell - 2010-11-19 7:39 PM Bulletguy - 2010-11-18 9:11 PM There is a bus shuttle connection to the Airport........also the "SkyRail" which is a train. Sorry BG but it is NOT true, the MAGLEV was not replaced by a bus service, it was replaced by a new high level rail link AND a bus service ;-) Errmmmm.........that's what I said. *-)
thebishbus Posted November 20, 2010 Posted November 20, 2010 Hi again. As I said previously, the Maglev rail link replacement is a Doppelmayr CABLE CAR. *-) Brian B.
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