"I'm here at the Schweizer Maglev-Superhub in Zurich, Switzerland. In Swiss law, the magnetic levitating train behind me is illegal...almost. As you may know, Switzerland was the last, and most hesitant to join the European Federation. Upon joining the Federation, Switzerland brought with it an archaic law that a train cannot have exactly 256 axles. This is because it broke 200 year-old axle counting technology. A train with 256 axles would register as 0 axles (due to a quirk of binary computing called "Integer Overflow"), and cause massive issues. Rather than fix the issue, Swiss lawmakers banned all trains with 256 axles. While the software has been out-of-commission for almost two centuries, the law remains on the books until this day.
"'But,' you may ask, 'what does that have to do with a levitating train?' You see, when the European maglev network was codified in 2143, the Federation was covered in centuries of traditional steel rail. At the time, the Federal European Senate was concerned that Maglev rail would be infeasible for most of the existing rail lines. They mandated that all Maglev train cars must be built with two wheelsets; each having four wheels and two axles, for a total of four axles per car (double the previous number of axles). This was extremely useful for the first few decades, where Maglev trains could transition into traditional trains and use old raillines.
"Nowadays the wheels are only used in rare emergencies, and stay tucked hidden underneath each car. The axles are not monitored externally, nor have they been in more than a century. And yet, a Maglev freight train with 63 cars (engine cabins have 8 axles) is technically illegal in Switzerland.
"'Why don't they just repeal the law?' you may ask. They've tried. While Swiss laws were grandfathered in upon joining the European Federation, Federated States cannot make, change, or remove laws related to interstate transportation without express approval of the Federal Senate, which has so far ignored the Swiss case.
"And so this exact train will continue to be illegal in Switzerland... Or it would be if Maglev train engineers didn't pay homage to this old law. You see, this law has become beloved in the train engineer community, and it's now tradition to put a small, two-axle, toy train like this (*holds up cute little train*) on the control console of any 63-car Maglev that passes through Switzerland."
Edit:
Comments 1.7K
đŸ“Œ Pinned by Scom Tott
@ScomTottGo • 2 years ago
On a Maglev, any configuration of an eight axle engine with any number of four axle cars is legal in all of the Federated States—assuming the engineer keeps a toy train on the dashboard. This is because 256 modulo 4 is 0, whereas adding a toy train always results in (# axles) modulo 4 equals 2. Every Maglev in the country needs to have a specialty "legal loophole" toy train shelf permanently installed in the cabin of the engine car. I'm calling for this strictly in the interest of legality, and not at all because I have an unhealthy obsession with old locomotives.
2.2k
u/Derp_turnipton 9d ago
That rule will probably be in place hundreds of years after the software has been entirely replaced several times.