Transrapid 08 (Lathen, Germany) at high speed, going southwards on the straight section of the north loop of the TVE. Here the train is accelerating from 300 to 400 km/h - (almost 250 miles per hour!) The sound of a passing train is loud and short, but you don't hear it approaching like a regular train. Picture taken on October 6th, 2000.
Magnets are used everyday, from electricity supplying generators to just placing a reminder on the refrigerator. Everyone has played with magnets at one time or another. A common fact of magnets is that opposite forces attract and like forces repel each other. This simple idea has been used to find a way to make trains travel on a cushion of air. These are called MagLev trains. MagLev is short for Magnetic Levitation. It uses the way magnets attract and repel to move very big things, like a train. MagLev trains are made to go very fast and travel on a special track called a guideway.
