11:16PM - 30.06.'15
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News Source: autoblog.com
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What's smarter, driving a city car to get where you're going, or taking the train? The answer likely depends on where you live, where you're going, and how good the train service is between the two points. But Smart is out to answer that question in its own way. The British division of Mercedes' kid brother has taken one of its new Forfours and modified it to run on rails. Not metaphorically handle like it's on rails, but actually drive on train tracks. You know, like an actual train. Only smaller. Much, much smaller. Where a locomotive might have a 17-liter engine and weigh 70 metric tons, the Smart comes in with less than one by both counts. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, Smart says it took six months of engineering and computer-aided design work to get it all lined up. The company teamed up with British train-builder Interfleet for the conversion process that necessitating replacing the rolling stock with 22-inch solid steel wheels weighing around 180 pounds a piece, disconnecting the steering, and welding aluminum supports between the axles to lock everything in place. The result was dubbed the Smart Forrail. It was demonstrated on a 10-mile stretch of railroad through Sussex, UK, run by the privately operated Bluebell Railway. But after the demonstration was done and the video above was shot, the vehicle was converted back to road-going specification. Which is a bit of a shame, because just once we'd like to get into a car (with the engine in the back, no less) and say to a confused passenger: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." |
