China seeks the ultimate high-speed train

News that Chinese scientists are conducting research in the hope of developing a maglev train that would reach speeds of up to 2,000 kilometers per hour as it rockets through an underwater tube made my jaw drop - until I realized that man's constant search for speed isn't that new.

Close to where I live in southeast London lie Sydenham Woods, the last trace of the Great South Wood that covered most of the Home counties around London in medieval times.

Hidden among the undergrowth are the remains of an extraordinary experiment by an enterprising railway engineer and inventor called Thomas Webster Rammell.