NORFOLK, Va. — Dangling from a crane about 25 feet in the air Thursday, Old Dominion University’s sleek, new maglev train looked more like a futuristic Tonka Toy than the next generation of travel, as touted by its inventors, the Virginian Pilot reports.
Especially to the preschoolers from ODU’s Child Development Center who delayed their naps to watch the 8-ton train get hoisted onto its permanent home — a narrow, elevated track through the heart of campus.
“See the train!” said one red-faced boy, pointing with one hand and shielding his eyes from the blazing midday sun with the other.
“It’s maglev!” said another bubbly tot.
Even ODU President Roseann Runte slipped away from a lunch meeting with the Board of Visitors to catch a glimpse.
“I told those 3-year-olds they’re watching a very historic moment,” she said, adding that they may not have grasped the significance.
Runte certainly did.
“In a few weeks, people driving their cars down Hampton Boulevard when the train passes overhead will probably feel a lot like the people in horses and buggies when the first car drove by,” she said. “It’s hard to believe we’re looking at a revolution in transportation here at ODU.”
The magnetically levitated train is the first in the United States. Magnets and electricity combine to lift and propel the train along a guideway.
Because it uses no moving parts and creates no friction, the technology could eventually whisk passengers along at more than 300 mph. But the ODU prototype is expected to max out at about 40 mph along a track that stretches about two-thirds of a mile.
After more than a year in development at American Maglev Technology Inc.’s test track in Edgewater, Fla., the blue-and-white train was trucked to the university and set with perfect precision onto the west end of the guideway at Powhatan Avenue.
The $14 million project is a partnership involving ODU, American Maglev, Dominion Virginia Power, Lockheed Martin and other companies. The state also kicked in $7 million, which is to be repaid with revenue from future American Maglev projects.
Along its two-day journey up Interstate 95 on an open flat-bed truck, the maglev drew plenty of stares. Horns honked. Crowds gathered at truck stops.
It arrived in Hampton Roads on Wednesday, overnighting on its trailer at Big Charlie’s Truck Plaza on Northampton Boulevard in Virginia Beach.
Because the rig was oversized, it required special permits and couldn’t travel during rush hour, ODU officials said. So it got to ODU after 10 a.m. Thursday.
It came without the dozen massive magnets that allow it to float about a half-inch in the air. Each magnet weighs 600 pounds, and officials wanted to lighten the load as much as possible.
Because the train has 12 arms that wrap snugly around the track, it couldn’t be dropped directly down, creating a challenge. Much like a zipper slide, it needed to line up with the track before it could be slipped over, and that meant ripping out a section of track to create an open alignment space at the end.
Temporary wheels were added to allow it to roll once it lined up.
The 54-foot-long car was shored up with four steel beams that were passed through slots in the undercarriage and then attached to a pair of similar beams that dangled from a cross girder.
By 1:30 p.m., less than an hour after it was suspended from the crane, the train was sitting atop the track with hardly a nick or scratch.
ODU and American Maglev officials were clearly relieved, exchanging hugs, handshakes and backslaps.
Today, crews will reassemble mechanical parts that were dismantled for the trip. They’ll also begin wiring the track with electricity, the train’s main power source. The magnets will be reinstalled by the middle of next week.
By the end of next week, the train should be levitating, said H. Britt Bochiardy, American Maglev vice president and project manager.
Over the next several weeks, the rest of the track will be delivered and installed on top of the guideway.
When it makes its maiden run, scheduled for September, the train will carry up to 100 people for 30 to 40 seconds between each of the three stations, running entirely on autopilot.
Between now and then, though, it will be making hundreds of test runs up and down the track, offering lots to see for curious onlookers like the preschoolers.
When the show was over Thursday, the 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds were led back to their classrooms, singing a maglev ditty — a takeoff on a “Sesame Street” song.
“M is for maglev, that’s good enough for me.”