Birmingham (UK) Airport Maglev Train 1984 - 1995 RIP
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- Опубліковано 19 жов 2024
- Opening on 16th August 1984 the Birmingham (UK) airport Maglev people-mover was a global innovation by being the first public transport installation (in the present era) to use magnetic levitation. Linking Birmingham International Railway Station with Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) it used two 'cabin' sized vehicles which featured electromagnets at each corner (to provide the lift) and linear induction motors (for propulsion).
The trains "flew" at an altitude of 0.6" (15mm), carried up to 40 passengers (plus luggage) and with a maximum speed of 26mph (42km/h) the approximately 2000' (620 metre) journey lasted for about 90 seconds.
Maglev technology uses powerful electro-magnets so that the transports float along the track on a cushion of air. This reduces friction, gives a very smooth quality of ride and makes such vehicles relatively quiet. Magnetics are also used for propulsion and braking.
The advantage of this technology over conventional steel wheel technologies is that there are massive savings in maintenance and there is the possibility of full 24-hour service - conventional railway tracks must have every stretch inspected every 72 hours (or even more frequently) and as this involves railway staff walking along the tracks it requires the lines to be closed to moving trains. This is usually done at night - and partly explains why conventional railways cannot offer 24 hours / all-night services. Maglev does not have this issue, as the system should only need periodic maintenance shutdowns - although most travellers and safety officials would probably feel happier if (at a minimum) this was done on a weekly basis.
In addition to meeting a real transport need this 'showpiece' installation was intended as a working demonstration of the new technology of magnetic levitation. However no further systems were built using the same technology and with the Birmingham installation working reasonably well so no need was seen to keep it up to date with newer technologies as they became available. Advocates of magnetic levitation technology suggest that especially the latter was another reason for the system's ultimate demise.
In the end it became a victim of its own success - because it had been so dependable, for so long, that when it finally needed spare parts there was no replacement parts industry. Furthermore its electronics had by then become several generations behind the times (isn't it just amazing that something so technologically advanced as a maglev can become 'old fashioned' so soon!). Closure came on the 19th June 1995.
Alas the Berlin M-Bahn is also closed - it went because of German reunification and the need to restore a small part of its route as the U-Bahn again.
Thanks for visiting my webpage, I'm pleased you found it to be of interest.
Simon
Some great footage, used to ride on it regularly. I was only 6 when it closed but remember it like it was yesterday. Was gutted when me and my Dad went to ride it to the airport and all we saw was a hoarding and a locked door! I never saw it running with two cars in multiple, yet there were no other vehicles stabled anywhere. Where were they kept?
I know two cars were left in the original colours; the one sold on eBay and the one at Railworld. Another was painted in a dark blue/turquoise colour and is at the NRM in York. The fourth car, I don't know.
Criminal really, a swish Maglev system retired after just 11 years to be replaced by Victorian cable-hauled technology... Great memories, thanks for posting!
+390h8er With hindsight I can see how filming this was indeed a great coup.
I have no idea where they were stored when not in use or the fate of the fourth car. As for its demise, its the technology... so advanced yet at the same time like clockwork when compared with that which existed when it closed.
My grandparents lived above what was the Co op, now Drinksworld, in Marston Green. My Grandma always used to take us to the viewing area at Bhx when it was in the main Terminal. We would grab the slam door train to International then over on the maglev. Those were great days that i hold very dear. I take my own kids over there now and they love it
Love this comment. My grandparents lived in Sheldon. My grandmother would take me on the 966 timesaver bus (with the high back seats) up the cov road to the airport viewing lounge. 10p mix and a trip on the maglev. There was a little gift shop too, if she was flush. What I'd give to re-live those days. They were better times.
@petersmithyt9091 I remember the little gift shop with all the post cards of the different aircraft on. I used to buy them with my pocket money and ive still got the scrapbook in my wardrobe with everything I bought, stuck in it. It's dated 93 but I woukd of been buying them before that, so perhaps 89 onwards to hazard a guess. I would love to relive those days, just felt safer, cleaner and less stress compared to modern life.
A shame it was closed! It looks to be a very interesting Maglev case study! Thanks for sharing your video. =)
The Maglev has closed due to bad design, but the line s still open using an electric propultion.
Thanks.
I understand that its at Railworld in Peterborough, along with the Hovertrain RTV 31, this being another
British project that was cut short just when breakthroughs were being achieved.
Both RTV 31 and the Birmingham maglev will sit together in a building
dedicated to rail transport and with a special display and level for
maglev and the hovertrain project with a look towards modern maglev
systems and a look at if maglev could be the way forward for the UK.
Simon
Its a shame the people boarding have not the manners to wait till the car is empty
Both Gatwick and Stansted use an Adtranz (formerly Westinghouse) system which features rubber-tyred vehicles that are guided by means of a central rail. Dating from the 1960's, for many years this system was the most successful people-mover technology globally.
Gatwick actually had two of these, but one was replaced years ago - I think it was when the terminal was rebuilt with people now having to walk instead (maybe there are moving walkways?)
There is also one at the railway museum at york and one by the old airport a holiday inn now by the coventry road .
Great vid. What became of the car, when the system closed? Did it end up in any of our museums?
It wore out, needed parts but they were not readily available and whilst they could have been sourced and the line upgraded the financial cost was deemed to be too high.
I faced a similar problem getting this video online (and all the rest I'm planning to digitise). My films are in S-VHS format but my video players no longer work and spare parts are not available. New S-VHS vidoes are not made (Panasonic's Quasi SVHS is too low quality) and in the end I had to get a pre-used machine on eBay.
I can remember traveling on this. It dosn't seem like it was as long ago as 1995, how time flys.
Hi mate i was born in 96 aswell :)
Ive rode it when i was younger doors closed on us so we had to stay on till it went back :P
Andrew :)
3:57 Barack Obama steps off the Maglev
I used to have action packed shootouts involving this section of track, to me it all seemed sci-fi in the day. A great pitty it closed down.
Well that was a good video!
I would love to ride it but it is now closed :(
I was born in 1996 so I would never have had the chance. Plus I live in Newcastle upon Tyne!
Anyway I read the Monorail page and I thought it was very interesting. Your side is very good and I love to read it!
Alex :)
@badboiant29
NO!
The Maglev was killed off in 1995.
What is used nowadays is a cable system which is somewhat akin to a flat lift.
Simon
The most exciting things in the UK comparable to this today are the Pods at Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, although they have nothing to do with MagLev technology.
I know what you mean, although I've never travelled on them.
I used to enjoy riding the MagLev and if going to the NEC would go for a ride just for the sake of it!
@@CitytransportInfoplus My family lives pretty close to Bham airport so it's slightly annoying that we never had a go on the MagLev between 1984 and 1995. I didn't start doing trips by myself until about 1997 or 1998 so it was slightly too late. I remember visiting the Birmingham Airport viewing gallery with my dad in 1998. Do you know why they closed that down? It seemed very popular at the time. I'd definitely recommend visiting Heathrow in order to ride the pods. I go there quite often just to ride them.
its a pity that you do not understand the technologies involved.
The maglev (which was NOT a monorail - as it used several rails) closed in 1995, and was subsequently replaced with an Austrian cable hauled system which is more akin to a funicular railway (albeit one that remains flat / does not climb hills).
they are the future... may be another decade before they start being used a lot more.
So you are in the Tyneside area? I've been on the Metro many times and a liitle from it will appear in a planned 'soon' film from the 1990 Garden Festival at Gateshead.
(still digitising the video - one tape snapped so needs repairing too)
Simon
@falkerhard
The line is still in operation, but on wheels and rails now, accompanied by that god awful BMI Baby music whenever youride :(
@citytransportinfo
Thanks for posting, I remember riding on this just for fun in the school holidays, we'd get a day saver to go all over the midlands (from Walsall). Maglev was quite something when it was new, and still fascinates now. It was free to ride on too :)
One of the 'cars' is at Railworld in Peterborough, don't know if it works tho???
All the rails and steelwork made at Cocksedge and Co of Ipswich.
It was closed onsupposedly exactly the same day that the 1973 stock train carrying United Airlines colours enterd service!
And now I miss my childhood.
@KRPTV nope, I did'nt see this. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, I suppose it depends on what the new owner does with it.
One of these Maglev vehicles shares a field with various farm animals in Burton Green, near Coventry. Maybe it's the one that was on eBay?
If I had to guess when this was filmed, I'd say around 1992.
I made several visits, in the early to mid 1990's. Your guess of 1992 was definitely in the right time frame
@@CitytransportInfoplus One of my hobbies is watching some footage and trying to work out what year it's from. Usually you can do it within 2 or 3 years from the fashions and the demeanour of the people. It's an interesting thing to try to work out in my opinion. In the late 80s and early 90s people tended to wear relatively colourful clothes compared to these days. For example light jackets with splashes of purple and green were very popular at that time.
Did you see it on the tv the other week, one of the carriages have been sold on ebay for £25,100?
Invented by Eric Laithwaite, an Engineer from Atherton in Lancashire, sadly the rest of the world have taken up this idea and made it work! we are to have HS2 an idea invented nearly 200 years ago.
my parents were very strict - I'd have been walloped for doing that. It was always 'do as you are told, when you are told, how you are told, or 'whack'.
As a child I was also banned from having the camera on family holidays, as I wanted to film the transports... now they are in disbelief because of my activities on youtube and the viewing numbers on some of my films.
Do you know when this was filmed?
Sorry but videotape did not record that data and I did not write it in the film sleeves. The footage in this film was sourced from multiple visits in the early to mid 1990's
Thanks, that's what I wanted to know. I couldn't tell whether it was maybe filmed in the late 1980s. My family lives about 25 miles from the airport but sadly we never visited when the MagLev was there which is really disappointing. I go there all the time now but of course it isn't very interesting now. I don't think they could have advertised the MagLev very well because otherwise we would have known about it. Perhaps they didn't want a lot of people visiting the airport just to have a ride on the MagLev in case it got too crowded. I notice that it was just one carriage compared to two now.
Check out the haircut on the kid in the orange shirt at 0:53
😂😂😂
We call that a 'Chav'. Not the haircut, the kid.
bowl around the head job. I think he's wearing a Wolverhampton Wonderer's shirt
I have lots more to come yet, just need time & working videos & computers.
Merry Hill Monorail
Sydney 1991 trains and monorail
Melbourne trams
Adelaide trams and guided buses
1990 Epping-Ongar open day
the GLT in Belguim and TVR in 2 French cities
1990 Gateshead Garden Festival
1988 Glasgow Garden festival (super8 cine)
Toronto streetcars, trolleycoaches (Edmonton) and I forget what else in Toronto
Vancouver skytrain and trolleybuses
Trams on the mainline (Karlsruhe) and more ...
What does that announcer say 14 seconds into the video? I can't quite make that out.🤔
Hello, "pleased be advised, the next transit vehicle will arrive shortly"
The 1980's 1990's were great times for Technology besides the "Mag Lev" you could get the "Boeing Jet Foil" from Dover to Oostende Belgium.
I can't believe how virtually every scene shows the same thing - people just standing in front of the platform doors. YOU HAVE TO LET PEOPLE *OUT* FIRST!
Wow this was decommosoned a year before I was born 😵
I was very sad, as I remembered them when they were brand new. I still think that maglevs are the future - not duorail.
citytransportinfo yeah but the future is now hyperloops
Lot of things today are rubbish compared to the 1980s and 1990s. Young people should understand that. One thing in particular was the atmosphere in places like airports. Until the mid 1990s there was a special feeling in airports and similar places, and there was an aura of being privileged to be there, as if you were about to get on a rocket that was heading to the moon or Mars, an air of excitement and anticipation. That doesn't exists at all now because airports are just like anywhere else.
@flossiepoppets I've seen the Maglev car at Peterborough and there's a small bit of track as an example but not enough for it to run.
cool!
Do you like my videos?
Do you know and areas where the Maglev's are in England that are still open?
Alex
@citytransportinfo Yes I live right next to the airport and im a plane spotter so YEAH!
Any one else remember Professor Eric Roberts Laithwaite doing his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on "Mag lev" on the telly at Xmas? I do When he flicked a switch a plate would levitate and fly off the bench!
You can watch them here: www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1974/the-engineer-through-the-looking-glass/looking-glass-house
@falkerhard
the mind boggles!!
;-)
Ok mate
@KRPTV Original bidder never paid, was relisted and sold for £100, just been on central TV.
this is still in service they have just refurbished them :/
Wish these trains were multi-units
I wish they still existed!
@@CitytransportInfoplus Tbh same here
yes LOL!!!
did you also see the children using it as an adventure playground and swinging from the hand rail?
Their parents should have told them to stop...
Simon
Uhh, I find maglev's very futuristic for some reason and they are all practically closed. Please see my UA-cam account and you can dee my home metro!
Alex
the kid in the orange footie top at 0:53!! Wot a haircut
Why other than the lame reasons was it closed?
Pull me out, Tarpley.
Hi, I'm Alex-shame about the doors...
I will send you a link to the video I am uploading where there is a close cut!
Check your channel comments at 7:30PM ok?
When was this filmed?
Good question.
Why doesn't anyone have luggage 😮
Thats a good question, maybe its because none of the people were air travellers?
Of course it should have been modernised. And used at other airports too...
If we are to suceed as a nation we need to invent and use our own technologies - alas we have become a nation that is rapidly sliding backwards with politicians who seem to serve others - who hide behind the scenes.
@duckjock I know... thats life!
@citytransportinfo yeh but they got another 1 now in bmi baby coors
DANG U! I used to live in the UK. I thought maglevs were only in like Germany in Asia, and now i find out that there was one in the UK they got rid of... I hate people =_=
Not only one, but the FIRST one!
kinda slow
it was fast enough for the 'short distance people-mover' service it provided and anyway in those days it was seen as something special simply because it was a Maglev. I would very much like to see something like the Japanese 'urban metro' Linimo maglev technology used here in the UK too! This is capable of much higher speeds.
@flossiepoppets I've seen the Maglev car at Peterborough and there's a small bit of track as an example but not enough for it to run.