[note: At this point I read a quote from a 19th century book on steam engines (then cutting-edge technology). The extract described the difficulty early railway engineers had designing solutions to the the "problem" that smooth steel wheels couldn't possibly grip a smoth steel rail well enough to propel a train forwards. The first railways used rack-and-pinion, or even leather tubes filled with pressurised air, but, ultimately, it turned out that a heavy railway engine did in fact have enough friction, and wasn't a show-stopping problem.
Picture from fromoldbooks.org.
Is it too late?
[note: showed a video of an old silent film with a maiden tied to the tracks, and an oncoming train]