These cool Shinkansen chopsticks from Daiwa Toy [JP] are modeled after the various bullet trains in service in Japan. They’re available in a variety of styles, sure to impress the most avid fan of Japan’s wicked-fast railways.

At $25.99 (USD) a pair, they’re not the world’s cheapest chopsticks, but they are officially licensed by Japan’s JR, and are bound to be collector’s items down the (rail)road. If you’re ready to eat some sushi in a hurry, you can hop on the Chopstick Express over at AudioCubes.

This is a high-speed rail train, so it’s not a MagLev train. This is good because this train will probably be operational soon, since it doesn’t require the costly and time-consuming buildout of MagLev tracks. Based on CSR’s CRH 380A, this train has been streamlined, uses lighter materials, and uses a lot more power in order to get over 300 mph. The standard CRH380 has a maximum drawing power of 9600 kilowatts, while this souped-up version can draw as much as 22,800 kilowatts.

There are several other competing high-speed trains being built, but since this train is basically a refinement of an existing platform, it might be produced a lot faster.

[China Daily via DVice]

The two trains are the Gold Express and the Silver Steam. The Gold Express is 40 inches long, 5 inches tall and includes an engine and two passenger carriages. The track is made of transparent plastic. It’s on eBay for $2,000 (USD). The Silver Steam is 44 inches long and 5 inches tall. You get an engine, one passenger carriage and two holiday freight carriages for $3,000 (USD) on eBay.

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[via Bornrich]

The rails were made-over with simple wraparound decals, but they look amazingly accurate, as if the poles had really been replaced by lightsabers. Great job of marketing the new Blu-ray release. Now please, no more changes. I just want to watch the original un-retouched versions.

[Japan Trends and Flickr via NewLaunches via OhGizmo!]

Talk about a rude awakening.

That’s probably what Ed Rogers felt in his apartment every day each time the train would ramble past his window. This led him to mod his place so that the windows would detect and automatically close once a train would go past his window so he could cram a few more minutes of sleep every morning.

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So how’d Ed do it? Well, he hooked up some custom-designed controllers, Arduino boards, components printed using a Makerbot, and a webcam that detect the presence of movement, causing the windows to close as soon as a train starts to pass. The windows close a bit slowly though, but hey, slowly-closing windows are definitely better than having to get out of bed to close them yourself.

[Nerdstink via BuildLounge via Dvice]

These pics were snapped by Martin Blass over at BabeTech at this year’s Deutsche Case Mod Meisterschaft (DCMM) in Germany, and show a computer case that looks like it belongs on a model railway.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any details posted about the mod, other than the fact that it was made by Hungary’s Fresli János, and it’s called the “Nohab PC” – presumably named after this Diesel-Electric train. But that’s okay. The pictures say it all. It’s a computer inside of a train, and in my book, that’s way cooler than your average desktop PC.

Here’s another pic I found of the Nohab PC, where you can see that it even has little lights in the front of the train above the DVD tray.

And if you feel like sitting through an hour of yawn-inducing Hungarian, you can see a bit of Fresli’s mod work log here.

[via Case Mod Blog]

Less resistance allows the train to go much faster than a normal train can. While 150 MPH is fast, Japan has just approved a new maglev train route that is under construction now that will be able to hit a whopping 313 MPH. The train system and its required tunnels will cost 9 trillion yen (~$112 billion USD). Apparently, 60% of that massive budget is to make the tunnels needed to connect the three cities the lines will operate between.

The cities include Tokyo to Nagoya and Tokyo to Osaka. The first line will be finished in 2027 and the second in 2045. A lot of the route is already built, it’s the tunnels that will take so long to complete. The high speed of the train will cut the 317 mile trip from Tokyo to Osaka to just over an hour travel time.

[via Inhabitat]

The researchers have constructed a robotic machine that is a ground-effect train. The vehicle floats on a cushion of air, and the prototype is set for a demonstration soon to see how things work out for the design. The vehicle is sort of like a cross between a maglev train and a low flying aircraft.

When I say low, I mean really low, too. It will float only a few inches over the ground, but that is enough to eliminate friction allowing the vehicle to be more efficient and faster.

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The prototype unmanned vehicle will go around a “U” shaped track at up to 125 mph. One day trains might be replaced with vehicles using propellers and wings only meant to fly a few inches off the ground.

[via ieee Spectrum via PopSci]

Each set includes a controller, 8 pieces each of curved and straight rail pieces, chopsticks, a couple of plates, and several fake sushi. See? Mildly Japanese.

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You can get the Sushi Train Restaurant and Game at Japan Trend Shop for $128 (USD) ($73 + $55 for shipping). The train runs on 2 AA batteries, while the controller needs 2 AAA batteries. I don’t know if they’re included.

[via 7Gadgets]

J & C Studios makes these teeny, tiny retro arcade machine models built to O-Scale proportions. Each 1.75″ tall game cabinet snaps together from laser-cut black styrene, and offer a place for you to put a grain-of-wheat or LED bulb behind the screen so it can light up.

J & C offers self-stick decal kits for Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Centipede, Zaxxon, Phoenix and Defender, but you could certainly make your own custom labels using a color printer if you wanted. Me, I want a miniature BattleZone machine. And if you’re feeling even more retro, they’ve got super small pinball machines too.

The arcade machines are just $7.49 (USD) a piece and the pinball machines will run you $6.49 each. You can find them over at the J & C Studios website. With a little work, you could probably stick a circuit board and an LCD screen inside one of these if you really wanted to go to town.

Participants connect the vinyl record slivers into any configuration they’d like, and the trains follow along the track, creating user-generated music mash-ups.

Now I have no idea how they managed to get such perfect slices out of these records, but they somehow figure out a way to do it accurately enough to keep the tiny trains from derailing.

Each train car has its own independent guidance system, needle, speaker and amplification, so they’re completely self-contained. They seem to have gotten their inspiration for these trains from the oh-so-awesome Vinyl Killer I featured a while back.

Check out the video clip below to see (and hear) the Sound Chaser train in action:

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Now isn’t that music to your ears? These guys need to package these up with slices of records and mass produce ‘em. I think they’d have a hit on their hands.

[via The Dapper Alchemist]

The concept was designed by Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan from Melbourne, Australia. There’s no word as to whether or not this thing will ever get made.

Check out this video for a 360 degree view, which maddeningly only shows the outside of this concept train (which I deem to be pretty much super lame because the whole capsule thing is all about the inside of the train.)

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While I appreciate innovation, it looks pretty claustrophobic to me, and could only be viable for shorter journeys since obviously you wouldn’t be able to get to the bathroom or the snack car. And who doesn’t love an early morning power breakfast of Cheetos and weak coffee from the snack car?

[via Dvice]

I must be in serious need of a snack because I actually drooled a little bit when I saw these pictures. Of course, it’s hard to tell if that’s because of my love of Legos or sushi- maybe both.

These tasty-looking treats are from Big Daddy Nelson’s flickr page. You can see more photos of the sushi (as well as other lovely Lego landscapes) there!

And now, here’s a completely different take on combining sushi and Legos- it’s real sushi presented on a lego train, sushi-boat style. I guess it’s one way to get that sushi-boat experience from the comfort of your 4-year-old’s bedroom. Check out the video here.

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[via xorsyst]

The idea is that people who want to board the train get into a smaller car that piggybacks onto the moving train as it passes through the station. To get off, you get into the smaller upper car while on the train and it unhitches at the station. If what I just said was totally confusing to you, then you should watch this video clip to clarify. The clip is in Chinese (I think) but the graphics are self-explanatory and show how this concept would work.

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Not only would this make overall train speed faster, since you don’t have to average in stopping times, but it would also be more energy efficient. Also, it’s super cool and futuristic.

You can read more about this concept, and its inventor Peng Yu-Lun, in this Taiwan Headlines article.

[via deputydog]

In order to keep you on schedule, Yumekobo’s Yamanote Alarm Clock gives you a visual indication of the train schedule on its clock face. In order to maintain accuracy, the clock is automatically updated via a radio time signal.

From what I can tell, the way it works is that all of the train stations on Tokyo’s well traveled Yamanote train line are listed around the perimeter of the dial. When the train is estimated to be arriving a station, the hands correspond to the correct location of the train. To get an idea of how the clock works, somebody has made a web-based version of the clock here.

In keeping with the train theme, the alarm sounds are from recorded from the actual station melodies that play along the line.

Rather than trying to just deal with differences in surfaces and obstacles as the robot approaches an area, the ‘bot can actually take data from its recent surroundings to predict what might be next and store that information in its internal map. By doing this, the robot can better prepare to navigate ahead of time, reducing the likelihood of getting stuck or slow progress through challenging obstacles.

Currently, the algorithm does add a bit of processing overhead to the robot’s software, meaning that it can’t cover as much ground as less intelligent robots. In future, the researchers plan to link up multiple robots to share their knowledge and to improve prediction capabilities.

[via softpedia via robotster]