Monkeywrenches and maglevs

[tris]

Okay, mappers, I need a little help figuring out what kinds of problems a maglev train could encounter. I've asked my physics son, but he's astronomy rather than mechanics, so not much help.

What kinds of things would slow down, hamper, cause things to go awry or stop a maglev. And by stop I mean cause the thing to derail or destroy the engine.

Been doing my research, but needless to say there aren't that many sites that cover this particular kind of info and I really, really, REALLY need to throw some monkeywrenches into the maglev operation.

You don't have to get too technical because this is a space opera after all -- not necessarily technically ignorant, just not technically interested

I appreciate all and any help in advance.

[torainfor]

Pulling down the family Wikipedia, I see there are two different kinds:

Electromag suspension wherein the electromagnets are on the train and repel against the conductive track
Electrodynamic suspension wherein both the train and the track have mutually repellent electromagnets.

Is this accidental or intentional? If it's sabotage, have the bad guy reverse the polarity of one of the electromagnets (the track on a electrodynamic system would be easier--easier to access than that on a moving train). The track would then pull on the train instead of repelling it. Humiliations galore!

Then there's propulsion--either electro-mag or mechanical. Electro-mag propulsion can be messed with the same way as the suspension--shut off the electricity and there's nothing pulling and pushing. Propeller/jet engines can break just like they do on aircraft. Instead of a bird strike, where a bird flies in through the intake and damages the fan, a squirrel can do it.

[J Jack]

I remember once reading a book where a crack commando unit of sorts had a tag along force who wore this armor made of fine glass looking material.

They wanted to break into an artillery base by using the train so their engineer thought up putting a chain of the armor shirts on the rails, non conductive material, and the train stopped. They piled on then pulled the armor out and boom, off they go.

If you have some sort of non conductive material, be it paste or cloth or something else, you could theoretically stop the train, and maybe derail it if the stop was sudden enough.

[tris]

Both of those are great ideas, thanks! The non-conductive material gives me lots of ideas, especially for causing the derailment. Layers upon layers of ideas. (evil grin). I also like the reversed polarity idea. I can see several ways to incorporate that.

Thanks guys! I love learning new things and exploring new ideas, but sometimes I just don't have the time to get a degree in every field I need to write space opera. Having access to all the brilliant minds in the Anomaly really helps.

FYI, the probs with the train are all due to sabotage, but from two very different sources -- one a former engineer and one not. Keeps our poor hero on his toes trying to figure things out.