THE FLYING SCOTSMAN

was the name of the train that, in the 1940's, left Glasgow at 10 a.m. and thundered into London at 4 p.m., its steam engine taking water on the non-stop run from a long water trough between the rails.

On December 7, 1981, another train made that journey, this time at a top speed of 160 mph, reaching London 2 minutes early (not counting the 13 years it was behind schedule). In itself, that is not a record; the French have a train a grande vitesse running just as fast between Paris and Lyon, and the Japanese have had a 130 mph train running between Tokyo and Osaka since the mid-60's. The latter reaps record profits, and the French TGV reached 210 mph in trial runs, but both run on specially built tracks with virtually no hills or bends.

On the other hand, the British Advanced Passenger Train (APT) runs on pretty well the same track as the Flying Scotsman used to, because it negotiates the curves at speeds 40% higher than conventional trains by tilting its cars.

OK, so on the return journey it came to an emergency stop when the tilting mechanism failed, and on the third run it had to be towed back to Glasgow, the passengers had to be transferred to a conventional train, and that conveyance of the nationalized British Railways broke down, too... But innovation means debugging, and the fact is that apart from using old track, the ATP's lightweight construction and good aerodynamics result in half of the French TGV energy consumption per passenger.

Note well the aerodynamics: air resistance (drag) becomes dominant at high speeds, dwarfing the rolling resistance of the wheels; therefore magnetic levitation, hovercraft, and other ways of dispensing with wheels at high speeds will probably be abandoned, except, of course, for the everlasting stream of dissertations, research projects and grant applications.

At low speeds, the situation is reversed, and wheelless vehicles may prove viable for collective transportation.

R.W. Poole, "Alternative Transit" and A. Parachini, "Sic Transit Transbus," both in Reason, July 1980 ($2 from Box 40105, Santa Barbara, CA 93103); J. Semmens, "Mass Transit Mess" and "The seen vs. the unseen," Freeman, Oct 79 and Aug. 81, resp.; J. C. Page, "Speed is the name of the game," Technology Review, Sept. 80; L.B. Lave, "Conflicting objectives in regulating the automobile," Science, 22 May 81, pp. 893-899.