Google Rail: Going Nowhere Fast

[VectraMan]

[TimberWolf]

The yellow wheel is an immobiliser.

[stek]

• The driving cog turns clockwise and turns the red cog anti-clockwise
• The red cog drives the left and middle wheels clockwise
• The wheels' cogs are double-thickness and the red/yellow cogs are in separate planes
• So the red cog drives the middle wheel clockwise, which in turn drives the yellow cog anti-clockwise, which finally turns the right wheel clockwise
• So all wheels turn clockwise on the rail, and in fact all 3 are geared equally

Someone check this please, I think it's sound though I doubt it is what the designer intended.

Maybe, but there's absolutely no sign of any valve-gear, unless there's some serious poppet-cam stuff going on between the frames - or any real connection between what seems to be the cylinders and the wheels.

Looks like it's been designed by a Bob, as there is also nowhere for the driver to sit.

[d000hg]

Which wheels would need to touch to make it work? Unless the yellow wheel is entirely redundant and not connected to either of the lower wheels, it still won't work.

• The driving cog turns clockwise and turns the red cog anti-clockwise
• The red cog drives the left and middle wheels clockwise
• The wheels' cogs are double-thickness and the red/yellow cogs are in separate planes
• So the red cog drives the middle wheel clockwise, which in turn drives the yellow cog anti-clockwise, which finally turns the right wheel clockwise
• So all wheels turn clockwise on the rail, and in fact all 3 are geared equally

Someone check this please, I think it's sound though I doubt it is what the designer intended.

[doodab]

This is why software engineers aren't allowed to do proper engineering

Or alternatively, that's why so much software doesn't work

[gingerjedi]

This one shouldn't work either.

[VectraMan]

Are you sure wheels that look to touch aren't in separate planes?

Which wheels would need to touch to make it work? Unless the yellow wheel is entirely redundant and not connected to either of the lower wheels, it still won't work.

BTW I'm a software engineer and I spotted this straight away.

[d000hg]

Today's Google logo supposedly honours Richard Trevithick:



Now, if the red cog goes anticlockwise, that means the yellow one must go clockwise. That means the left wheel will go clockwise, the right wheel will go anticlockwise, and the middle wheel will try to go in both directions at the same time

This is why software engineers aren't allowed to do proper engineering

Are you sure wheels that look to touch aren't in separate planes?

[xoggoth]

Which reminds me, still have a big box of Lego in the attic. Something to keep me busy when I reach my 2nd childhood.

[xoggoth]

And the big connecty thing would hit the gears. On the other plus side, if it could work, the piston rod at the front would be great for punching cows out of the way.

[Sysman]

Woosh! Back to childhood. I think it was a Ladybird book which featured what was possibly the first accident by a self-propelled vehicle



Yes - that's a single wheel at the front.

Trevithick's Puffing Devil also got a mention in that book, and also met with a sticky end:

During further tests, Trevithick's locomotive broke down three days later, after passing over a gully in the road. The vehicle was left under some shelter with the fire still burning whilst the operators retired to a nearby public house for a meal of roast goose and drinks. Meanwhile the water boiled off, the engine overheated and the machine burned, destroying it. Trevithick did not consider this a serious setback, but rather operator error.

Operator error obviously isn't something new.

[russell]

Today's Google logo supposedly honours Richard Trevithick:



Now, if the red cog goes anticlockwise, that means the yellow one must go clockwise. That means the left wheel will go clockwise, the right wheel will go anticlockwise, and the middle wheel will try to go in both directions at the same time

This is why software engineers aren't allowed to do proper engineering

Good that it's only a digital image and not a real machine.

[AtW]

They've recently received a patent on this whole doogle thing idea.

IANAL, but you may have just infringed it

[RasputinDude]

This is why artists aren't allowed to do proper engineering.

[NickFitz]

Today's Google logo supposedly honours Richard Trevithick:



Now, if the red cog goes anticlockwise, that means the yellow one must go clockwise. That means the left wheel will go clockwise, the right wheel will go anticlockwise, and the middle wheel will try to go in both directions at the same time

This is why software engineers aren't allowed to do proper engineering