This is the mighty CRH500, China’s new record-train, its target is to break through the 500 km/h (310.685 mi) barrier. the CRH500 is officially called a ‘test train’ but it is in fact the first of a new series real-world trains from manufacturer CSR Sifang Locomotive. The trains will run on China’s brand-new high-speed railway network.

Before that, the 500km/h has to be breached. There are many different records for high-speed trains, see Wiki, but the record China wants to break is in the category ‘Top Speed, Conventional Wheeled’. The current record stands at 487.3 km/h (302.8 mi) and was set by China’s CRH380 with a 16-car trainset in January this year on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

The all-time high-speed record by a conventional wheeled train was set by a purpose-built French TGV in 2007. Top speed was 574.8 km/h (357.18 mi). This TGV was a one-off test vehicle in the category ‘Special built trains for test only’.

The design of the new train is said to be inspired by ‘a Chinese sword’. When China will attempt to break the record is unknown. China mostly doesn’t say anything until the record is actually broken. There is still a lot of secrecy surrounding the high-speed train development and this CRH500 is a case in point. According to state-press it debuted on December 22, the first articles however appeared only yesterday on December 26.

6-car trainset.

Cockpit, pilot’s view seems limited.

2+1 seating.

On this first test-train only:  a special car for engineers right behind the locomotive.

Pics via: ChinaDaily and Xinhua.