"How do you plan to get these train cars into your tunnels? With a tow truck, or like before, with hidden rails?" one parent asked curiously.
"Comrade, have you ever used a suppository?" Huang He retorted.
"A suppository?" The parent's expression changed slightly, clearly embarrassed, but they finally nodded sincerely, "I used one when I had gallstones!"
"It's a similar process. First, we need to get the entire vacuum high-speed train car moving," Huang He said. As he spoke, two gripper arms, which had previously served to support the car, extended from below and from the left and right, firmly clamping the entire car.
These two gripper arms then began to move in a straight line, thereby propelling the entire vacuum high-speed train car forward, moving it in a straight line. Simultaneously, through the surveillance cameras, it could be seen that several vacuum high-speed train cars placed in other areas of the platform also began to be clamped by gripper arms and moved in a fixed direction.
Eventually, all the cars were moved to the leftmost wall. On the opposite wall, from left to right, five circular isolation doors were neatly arranged.
At the same time, Elder Chen introduced, "These five isolation doors are the vacuum buffer channels between the station platform and the vacuum tunnels. One end of the glass door is the actual platform, filled with air and bustling with people, while the other end is a complete vacuum environment. Our first step is to send these vacuum trains into the vacuum buffer channels!"
After Elder Chen finished speaking, one of the isolation doors slowly opened, and the gripper arms controlled the high-speed train car, guiding it slowly, bit by bit, into the vacuum buffer channel within the isolation door.
The diameter of this isolation channel should have been only slightly wider than the diameter of the vacuum high-speed train car, by less than a centimeter. Thus, the entire vacuum high-speed train car looked as if it were being forcefully inserted like a suppository, a description that was quite apt.
Once the entire vacuum high-speed train car was fully within the channel, the isolation door slowly closed. At the same time, staff in the control room were heard shouting loudly, "Begin air evacuation!"
"Air evacuation commencing!"
Although there were no cameras that could directly film the interior of the isolation door, the situation inside the isolation channel could be observed through cameras installed inside the vacuum high-speed train car and through the windows of the vacuum high-speed train car.
At this moment, the inner wall of the isolation channel, which had maintained a gap of about one centimeter from the vacuum high-speed train car, suddenly pressed tightly against the glass of the vacuum high-speed train car, startling everyone watching the video. xxs壹贰
"Inside the vacuum buffer channels, we use special materials that are highly elastic and tough. These materials are somewhat similar to shapewear, or perhaps performance wear. When there is air in the vacuum tunnel, the inner wall is the normal inner wall."
"But once the air starts to be evacuated, these elastic isolation materials will immediately cling tightly to the outer wall of the entire vacuum high-speed train car, much like performance wear. Through this method, we can effectively remove 99.999999% of the air from the vacuum buffer channel."
"This also greatly saves energy. The energy required to evacuate all the air from a vacuum buffer channel is less than the electricity consumed by a computer in a day."
"Of course, the entire process is also very much like using a suppository." Well, it seems that the suppository is destined to become a recurring joke for this vacuum high-speed train car.
As all the air was evacuated from the vacuum buffer channel, a slight push from the rear compressed the entire vacuum high-speed train car, forcing it directly out of the isolation channel and into a space emitting a faint white light.
"Ladies and gentlemen, our vacuum high-speed train car has finally entered the vacuum high-speed tunnel!" Elder Chen said cheerfully, and a round of applause instantly erupted in the control room.
"Is this the inside of the vacuum high-speed tunnel?" The parents eagerly peered through the cameras installed inside the vacuum tunnel to observe the situation, and then a parent quickly raised a question, "Elder Chen, shouldn't the vacuum high-speed train car be suspended inside the tunnel? Why do I see this train still resting at the bottom of the tunnel?"
"That's because we haven't activated the magnetic levitation system yet!" Elder Chen smiled slightly, and the staff member under him immediately announced, "Vacuum pre-departure tunnel No. 1, prepare for ring magnet activation!"
"Vacuum pre-departure tunnel No. 1, ring magnet preparation completed!"
"Activate!"
"Activate!"
In an instant, the light inside the tunnel began to rapidly change in brightness, and then a purple light lit up along the top and bottom of the tunnel, forming two parallel lines.
As the light lines formed, the vacuum high-speed train car, which had been resting at the bottom of the tunnel, slowly began to float up before the eyes of the observers, finally coming to rest precisely in the center of the entire tunnel.
"The outer wall of our vacuum high-speed train car will maintain a precise distance of 10 millimeters from the inner wall of the vacuum tunnel," Elder Chen explained.
"Only a 10-millimeter gap? That's less than the width of a knuckle. Isn't that distance a bit too short?" A parent immediately raised an objection.
"Don't worry, this distance has been meticulously designed. Firstly, a longer distance is not necessarily better. An excessive distance will reduce the magnetic levitation force, making it impossible to propel the vacuum high-speed train car forward with sufficient power."
"Secondly, as long as the ring magnetic force is consistently present, the vacuum high-speed train car will inevitably maintain the same distance from all inner walls. Even if it's only one millimeter, there's no need to worry about the vacuum high-speed train car colliding with the inner wall."
"Of course, in situations like turns, we will appropriately increase the distance to ensure that the maglev train does not touch the inner wall during the turn. However, the maximum distance will not exceed 30 centimeters."
"Another advantage of a short distance is that if it is indeed necessary to touch the inner wall, a short distance will reduce the impact force. Conversely, a long distance will result in a greater collision force, posing a greater threat to the passengers inside the train."
"Prepare to change magnetic force direction!"
"Magnetic force direction is being changed, magnetic acceleration is starting, confirm normal train movement?"
"Confirming normal train movement, train is entering Vacuum Connection Tunnel No. 1!" Following the staff members' series of loud confirmations, it could be seen that the vacuum high-speed train car in the surveillance video was moving forward.
However, the speed was not fast, at most comparable to a normal person walking, and certainly not "high-speed" in any sense.
But the entire movement process was not long, lasting only about 10 seconds, before an intersecting junction appeared ahead. This vacuum tunnel directly connected to another vacuum tunnel.
"Begin entering Vacuum Connection Tunnel No. 1!"
"Success, train has smoothly entered Vacuum Connection Tunnel No. 1!" It appeared that this new tunnel was what the staff referred to as Vacuum Connection Tunnel No. 1.
But why the word "connection"?
Soon, the audience understood the reason. The several vacuum high-speed train cars that had also begun moving were now entering Vacuum Connection Tunnel No. 1 through the other four different vacuum pre-departure tunnels.
Simultaneously, driven by force, these five cars came into contact with each other end-to-end. Then, the tail locking mechanism automatically engaged, connecting these five cars head-to-tail, ultimately forming a vacuum high-speed train composed of five cars.
"Your train cars are connected inside the tunnel!" The audience present was very surprised. Shouldn't the entire train be assembled before passengers board?
"Yes, the train cars can only be connected inside the vacuum tunnel. If we were to connect them outside, we would need to create much longer vacuum buffer channels, which would increase the land requirements for the station. Furthermore, during the vacuum evacuation process, more air would be left residual within the vacuum tunnels. Therefore, the best approach is to enter the vacuum tunnels one car at a time, and then complete the connection work within the tunnels. This is the most cost-effective and safest method!" Elder Chen explained.
"And this also has an advantage in terms of more flexible ticketing!" Huang He chuckled. "When selling train tickets before, a very long train route was designed, and tickets were sold based on intermediate points along the train. This led to a situation where many seats on the train would remain empty, wasting a lot of the train's capacity."
"And during non-holiday periods, the passenger load might only be around 20%, but the train would still have to depart as scheduled, causing further waste of capacity."
"But it's different when we connect them car by car like this. The minimum passenger capacity for a route can be controlled at around 15 people. And we can flexibly decide the number of cars based on the number of tickets sold."
"Moreover, and more importantly, this allows for rapid connection between different vehicles. For example, some passengers want to travel from Shanghai to Beijing, while others want to travel from Shanghai to Wuxi."
"Then these passengers bound for different destinations can first be assembled into a single train and travel together to Wuxi. Upon reaching Wuxi, some cars will directly detach from the vacuum tunnel and enter the Wuxi station."
"While the other cars will wait inside the vacuum tunnel to be reassembled with other passenger cars wishing to travel from Wuxi to Beijing, forming a new train and then proceeding to Beijing. This will greatly save on the costs generated during transportation."
"Furthermore, through this more flexible method, we can even achieve all-day ticketing in the future. That is to say, we can sell tickets for vacuum high-speed train cars to different destinations every 10 minutes, completely resolving the drawback of having to travel according to train schedules."
"It will be like taking a bus on a vacuum high-speed train, with departures every 10 minutes, making it extremely fast and convenient!" As Huang He slowly described, the audience seemed to glimpse the glorious era of vacuum high-speed trains in the future.