Here's a session I'd like to see!!

frogpipe

Yesterdayz Trainz Member
737124main_soyuz_on_train_cropped_946-710.jpg
 
Aaahhh Baikonur Cosmodrome. I've spent like 10 hours no joke on Google earth researching it. I agree with you on this.
 
Wouldn't the transportation journey be quicker if they started the rocket motors? :eek:

Yes, but I think they might kick up a little ballast. Or melt the tracks. And I think they might have a hard time stopping. Now Im no rocket scientist, Kerbel Space Program has proven that. And I am no professional track layer. But all of those things seam like they end the same way. And I quote XKCD #1133, "You will not go to space today."
 
From the picture, it appears that the rocket exhaust is pointing forward. Maybe they fear a runaway and need the braking power?

Unless that's another engine at the far end.

Bill
 
(rear) Loco - Box - Flatcar w/Rocket - Loco (front)

It travels toward the camera on it's way to the launchpad where the decouple the lead loco and move it aside. trailing loco then finishes the last push upt to the launch tower and the rocket is raised into a vertical position. I'm not sure if the flat car stays there for the launch or not.
 
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Most likely the car is moved. If not, then its not going to be there after the rocket's launch. The heat from those is enough that if left there, they would quickly melt the concrete pad under them.

When NASA still launched shuttle missions, they would flood the pad just under the shuttle with water, about 7 inches deep, form the near by water tower. This prevented the Shuttles engines and SRB's (Solid Rocket Booster's) from melting the concrete launch pad base. This is also why, when ever you see footage of a shuttle launch, there is a huge white cloud covering the pad.

And yes, I am saying the are hot enough to melt concrete. So a iron and steel rail car is not going to last very long. The only way rocket engines keep cool is the fact that the fuel going in is very cold. About −418 °F. The engines them selves are around 6,000 °F. Concrete, mostly silica, will "melt" around 3000 °F. By melt, it more or less crumbles to dust. The rock and silica that make it up can turn to lava, if heated hot and long enough.
 
Actually (in Baikonur) the rocket is suspended over a huge concrete covered "ditch" that descends and then turns horizontal, so the exhaust is "guided" across the landscape.

Basically they launch it by first hanging it over a cliff.

That means that the hottest parts of the rocket exhaust don't contact anything, tho in Google earth you can see the concrete of that ditch is mighty worn and cracked anyway.

I figured the car would be toast if it stayed, and now that I think of it when I've seen Soyuz in launch position it's suspended in the hole of a steel ring of platforms.

Here's a view down into that hole, sans rocket.

vega-soyuz-jun3-3-lg.jpg


A side view of the "ditch"

baikonur14_050774_zps7f9e9469.jpg


Proton M on it's way to the pad

baikonur12_16395619_zpsec286eeb.jpg


Better angle of a "Soyuz" train.

baikonur10_032240_zps1fa8f814.jpg
 
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Like that at NASA too.

nasa-launch-pad-flame-trench.jpg


They flood this area with water to protect the concrete base. The shuttle and other rockets are held up by supports that fall away as they release. And of course, explosive bolts. Its amazing how much of these things explodes, as so the whole thing doesn't explode.


Im sure that when setting the rocket up right, they lift it off the rail car.
 
I'm sure you are right... getting back to the original point - sure would be a hoot to drive it around and/or have a Baikonur route!
 
I think there's a Baikonour route on the DLS: it's called "USSR Baikonour" or some such. the same guy made the Somerset and Dorset and the Lickey Incline routes...TLBlade is his username?

...BTW, PBY, I've done the same thing as you ever so slightly; I may or may not have found out that there's a steam locomotive plinthed on dispaly at Baikonour train station...
 
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I think there's a Baikonour route on the DLS: it's called "USSR Baikonour" or some such. the same guy made the Somerset and Dorset and the Lickey Incline routes...TLBlade is his username?

G'day, there is indeed a route and a session for this.

USSR Rocket Centre
Type: Layouts
Downloaded: 2414
File Size: 355.67 kb
File Type: .cdp
Created by: TLBlade
Date: 3rd February 2008
Version: TRS2006 SP1
KUID: <KUID:276088:1003>


USSR Rocket Centre (Session)
Type: Scenarios
Downloaded: 1454
File Size: 89.89 kb
File Type: .cdp
Created by: TLBlade
Date: 3rd February 2008
Version: TRS2006 SP1
KUID: <KUID:276088:1004>

So here you go...9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1....blast off.
Regards
Barrie
 
Most likely the car is moved. If not, then its not going to be there after the rocket's launch. The heat from those is enough that if left there, they would quickly melt the concrete pad under them.

When NASA still launched shuttle missions, they would flood the pad just under the shuttle with water, about 7 inches deep, form the near by water tower. This prevented the Shuttles engines and SRB's (Solid Rocket Booster's) from melting the concrete launch pad base. This is also why, when ever you see footage of a shuttle launch, there is a huge white cloud covering the pad.

And yes, I am saying the are hot enough to melt concrete. So a iron and steel rail car is not going to last very long. The only way rocket engines keep cool is the fact that the fuel going in is very cold. About −418 °F. The engines them selves are around 6,000 °F. Concrete, mostly silica, will "melt" around 3000 °F. By melt, it more or less crumbles to dust. The rock and silica that make it up can turn to lava, if heated hot and long enough.

The water is actually used as a sound supressant to protect the rocket from accoustic shock waves and also from reflected heat.
see here.
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/nasafact/count4ssws.htm
 
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