The invention involves a long rail made of laminated steel. I.E. it is made of thin cut-outs of the rail, stacked in a row down the length of the rail. A powerful permanent magnet is to move down the length of this rail, at a distance of a few millimeters. It will be inducing a magnetic field in the steel rail as it goes along. Question is, will it be generating enough eddy currents in the rail to create too much resistance for travel, or will it generate negligible resistance?
Well we know for sure that the inventor sucks. If eddy currents is what he wants, he would be using aluminum or copper instead of steel. :-)
Lamination is a process that creates less current resistance. Current resistance means heat which means something is less efficient. However, laminating steel does this by reducing eddy currents which is what you don't want with a maglev type of device. You want more eddy currents which will create a bigger opposing magnetic field which is what allows a maglev train to float. You want basically conductive materials with no ferromagnetic properties but has diamagnetic properties. Aluminum and copper both fit this well usually.
Search the literature at a comprehensive university engineering library. They've been working on these things for forty years or so and have researched most of the problems. The 'attractive' system you describe has been under study for a very long time. Theoretically, of course, you're best off with a rail that's magnetic and non-conductive, say one made out of ferrite. But this is impractical, so probably your laminated steel is as good as anything. Yes, there will be eddy currents, but perhaps controllable ones. As you design your system, you'll discover why the wheel turned out to be such a success. Magnetic-suspension systems attract every bit of ferrous debris imaginable, including bits of iron ore in the ballast. The controls that control the magnet current and thus maintain your clearance from the rails are exceedingly tricky to implement. The magnets themselves are miserable to build; the flux density is such that only superconductors will do the job, and that's just what every railroad operator wants to deal with. Eddy currents are the least of your worries. I imagine that they'd be on the order of air-friction losses. But it's a good exercise in design. Have fun; you'll probably find most of the best maglev journal articles were published in the 1970's, which is why most won't be available on-line: you need paper or microfilm.
