Name: The Real Reason Why Trains Can't Go Uphill
Uploaded: 2020-03-06T23:42:52.000Z
Duration: 8 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

You'll climb on board the first, the fastest, and the most luxurious trains out there.

Along the way, you'll find out why trains can't go uphill and how some go without wheels!

Doesn’t feel like you’re riding a train, huh?

That’s because you’re on its prototype.

It’s a trolley that moves on wooden blocks instead of a railway.

You won't be on it for long since it was built to transport goods between a village and a

Horses and people were used instead of an engine.

Later, they started connecting trolleys with each other for greater efficiency.

You arrive in the nearest village on this locomotive ancestor and…

A muscular stocker is working in a special compartment – he throws coal into the engine.

You ride at a measly speed of about 30 mph.

(Measly compared to our next stop, anyway!)

If it's hot outside, then inside it becomes simply unbearable.

Air conditioners haven't been invented yet.

Fortunately, you ride through a time tunnel and find yourself in present-day Shanghai.

You transfer to a comfortable modern train, and it’s one of the fastest types in existence

You're sitting on a soft chair as the train travels so quietly and smoothly that you wouldn’t

even know you’re currently moving about 268 mph.

But this isn’t the train’s main feature.

It's unique in that it travels without wheels, but levitates with the help of electromagnetic

Take the equal sides of two magnets and try to press them together.

And will you look at that – you’re now in Scotland!

You catch a train in the small town of Fort William.

It seems familiar to you, but you can’t quite recall where you’ve seen this thing

As you’re passing through picturesque meadows along the high Glenfinnan Viaduct, you realize

that you’re chugging along on the real Hogwarts Express!

You go to a special station to catch an equally special train.

You come up to it, and the red carpet is immediately spread in front of you.

"They must’ve confused me with some kind of superstar?" – you think.

Before you board, you’re handed a book with the descriptions of the places you’ll pass.

You hear live music playing in the fashionable carriage.

You’re admiring the beautiful view from the window when you notice a bus following

A strange sight it is, but it’s there in case you suddenly want to get off and enjoy

And don’t worry about the train leaving without you – the bus will take you to the

next station where this luxurious locomotive will stop.

You're hungry, and fortunately, there are two restaurants on the train.

But you can only dine there in your best evening wear.

In the restaurant, you'll be served local dishes of the region you’re currently passing

You can ride in it for a whole week, but you need to get off now…

We’re in England, at the railway station in the small town of Snaith.

There are no ticket machines, no ticket offices, not even taxi parking.

Just when you’re starting to think you’re stuck in a ghost town, the train arrives.

You hop inside the car only to realize you’re the only passenger on board!

Empty trains travel around the UK all the time.

They pass through stations that have long been abandoned.

Well, for that, a rail company would need to go through a bunch of expensive bureaucratic

procedures, and that doesn’t exactly sound like a good time.

Plus, these ghost trains aren’t bothering anyone!

You reach a hill, and now your party of one must deboard because there’s no more railroad

They can’t just keep laying the line up the slope – they’d need to cut through

Long and explosive story short, you need to do everything so that the rails are straight

Because the train can't go uphill, and here’s why:

There's very little friction between these smooth steel parts.

It's less than between your car’s rubber tire and the road, in fact!

Yet there’s still a firm grip, and the train can accelerate quickly since its mass is heavy

But as soon as the train rises uphill, its weight distribution changes, the frictional

force weakens, and the wheels begin to spin in place.

Or you can increase the train mass, and then it’ll climb a small hill.

You need to put “teeth” on the rails and wheels so that the train moves like a gear.

The highest gear railroad is in Switzerland – a place known for its mountainous terrain!

So, you take this gear train and ride along one of the most scenic routes in the world.

But the beauty of these places is soon shrouded by a darker tone.

You’re heading to Italy in 1911, and you get on a train of the Zanetti railway company.

The train, which isn't destined to reach its destination, will become the most famous ghost

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The Real Reason Why Trains Can't Go Uphill

present

journey

realize

express