LAST POST

Well, we did it. We finished the evil Melbourne off. Me and Ray finished Flinders Street Station. It looks great. Very proud of it. Everyone else did a good job as well. YAY WE ARE DONE!!!!!!!!!!

Flinders coming along great!

Well ive finish the main wall with its textures. Ray finished(ish) the clock tower and i placed it above the second entrance. I created the second entrance and place ed Lil's death gates in there. It is coming along great. The front entrance needs more work though.

Flinders Continues

Well, I had to re-aline all objects so they are now sitting pretty perfect. I took forever. I change the bottem of the wall aswell.There are no textures on it yet, there will be when im happy with the wall. I alsop started the front but i havnt done that much. This is a pretty long job. I have to complete it anyhow.

The station continues

I decided to delete the walls and start a new. I am working on one wall now. When i finish it i can just copy and paste them next to each other, like in my screen shots. It is looking way better than before. And it will only get better.

The start of a new beginning

We have started to make our train station. Me, Joel, Ray and Leah are making it. I have started to do the out side; walls, stairs and a little of the roof. Its a working progress. I stuffed up at the start and started making it all over again. But now i know what I'm doing. Here are some picyures of what i have done so far. The colour is wrong and there will be way more to do, so when it is finished, it will be awesome.

Research -3-

Maglev Trains Of The Future

There is a new form of rail transportation that will revolutionise transportation of the 21^st the
way that airplanes did in the 20^th century. Maglev is short for 'Magnetic Levitation'. Japan and
Germany are both developing this technology. The basic idea is that these trains will levitate a distance above
the guide rails and travel at speeds of up to 500km/h. This will help to satisfy the demands of today's fast
paced society.

Electromagnetic Propulsion

The opposite poles of magnets attract each other and like ends repel, this is the simple principle behind electromagnetic propulsion. However electromagnets attract metal objects while charged with electricity, the pull is temporary and dependent on the charge. For a train to operate three major components must be present in the system: a powerful electrical power source, large guidance magnets attached to the underside of the train, a track lined with metal coils.

age courtesy of Railway Technical Institute

The magnetized coil running along the track, is called the guideway. This will repel the large magnets on the underside of the carriage, causing the train to hover above the track. The electric current supplied to the coils in the guideway is constantly alternating and uniquely pull and push the train along the guideway. The key advantage of the Maglev train is that it floats on a cushion of air, with virtually no friction. This allows the train to reach such high Image courtesy Howstuffworks.com speeds!

Transrapid International are developing an electromagnetic suspension system (EMS). They have already demonstrated that it can reach 500Km/h with people on board. This speed can get a pasenger from Paris to Rome in 2 hours. The Swiss are considering a new 700km system. The developers of these trains will most likely be connecting major cities up to 1600km away from each other, linking the most busy routes and exploiting their niche by being the fastest mode of accessable transport. The development of such a high speed network has been stunted by the high investment required. The costs of producing the guideway at the moment still remains quite high at $10 million to $30million per mile. However this is not so outrageous in comparison with cost per mile highway of $20million to $30million. The trains could begin their first commuter services by 2004.

Research -2-

How cool are these trains that little kids came up with. Don't pretend there not cool.
And also some pictures of flinders street station.