In a message dated Tue, 3 Sep 2002 8:39:49 AM Eastern Standard Time, "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>Re: [USMA:22021] Fwd: [A_A] "millimeter tolerance"2002-09-03 > >I too saw that and was somewhat confused by it. �I did not know exactly what he was >referring too and what Americans should be proud of. �Was he upset that a French >Railroad maintained a tolerance of 1 mm whereas American railroads are 25 times more >tolerant? �Thus implying French technology superior to American. �Was it the fact the >French were using metric measures and the Americans were still using obsolete units, >thus contributing to the backwardness of American technology compared to the French. >�It seems somebody is a little jealous here. > >Actually, I did not see anything in the article that implied all French track is kept >to 1 mm tolerance. �Just the TGV test track. �And maybe it had to be in order to keep >the train stable at 300 km/h. �I doubt there is an American train that can go >anywhere near that speed. > ... There isn't. I think the reason for the post was to point out the very tight tolerance of track gauge on the TGV line, as opposed to that on freight railroads in the USA. Of course when you have concrete ties and track clips and only high speed passenger trains, it's easy to keep the track to such a tolerance. When you have wooden ties and spikes and heavy freight trains as well, it's another matter entirely. Carleton
