Liberia 5 Dollars "Transrapid-08" Hamburg-Berlin Monorail

"Transrapid-08" Hamburg-Berlin Monorail

Nominal Value	Metal	Weight	Diameter	Mintage    Year
5 Dollars	CuNi	30.75g	38 mm	N/A        1999

Transrapid is a German high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation based on a 1934 patent. Planning for the Transrapid system started in 1969 with a test facility for the system in Emsland, Germany completed in 1987. In 1991, technical readiness for application was approved by the Deutsche Bundesbahn in cooperation with renowned universities.

The current application-ready version, the Transrapid 09, is designed for a cruising speed of 500 km/h (311 mph) and allows acceleration and deceleration of approximately 1 m/s2 (2.24 mi/min2).

The system is developed and marketed by Transrapid International, a joint venture of Siemens and ThyssenKrupp.

The Transrapid 08 is a train of magnetic levitation train Transrapid type.

55 units of the vehicle were intended for the planned Maglev Berlin-Hamburg. The end of 1997 was expected that the vehicle would be the end of 1998 / beginning of 1999 for type approval by the German Federal Railway Authority available

On 22 September 2006, a Transrapid train Transrapid 08 collided with a maintenance vehicle at 170 km/h (106 mph) on the test track in Lathen. The maintenance vehicle destroyed the first section of the train, then lifted off the track to complete two full rotations before landing in a pile of pre-exploded debris. This was the first major accident involving a Transrapid train. The news media reported 23 fatalities and that several people were severely injured, these being the first fatalities on any maglev.The accident was caused by human error with the first train being allowed to leave the station before the maintenance vehicle had moved off the track. This situation could be avoided in a production environment by installing an automatic collision avoidance system.

source: wikipedia/ own