Battery powered train sets UK record

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Moxi
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Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2021 3:46 pm

Re: Battery powered train sets UK record

#31

Post by Moxi »

richbee wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 1:17 pm I keep glancing at this thread and see 'battery powered train sets' ...UK record.

ALmost time to bust my Hornby stuff out of the loft....almost :lol:
:lol:

I keep thinking Hornby scale too

Moxi
chris_n
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2022 9:33 am

Re: Battery powered train sets UK record

#32

Post by chris_n »

I worked on battery operated trains over 30 years ago when I worked in Coal mines. We had everything from steam and diesel locos on the surface to electric (overhead line), diesel including twin engined and battery including some very small rubber tyred examples underground. The overhead line electric ones used to create massive sparks when accelerating hard but all of the places they could access were established main intake roadways with no chance of methane gas accumulation ( was also monitored in many areas, if even the smallest amounts were detected the power would shut down but this never happened in the 10 years I worked with them. There were however many shutdowns through earth leakage when damp air was drawn into the mine and settled on insulators covered in fine dust creating leakage paths. The electricians then had to go and clean all of the insulators with distilled water in an industrial version of a garden sprayer.)
The diesel powered locos had flame traps that were effectively 2 inch wide by 3/16th stainless plates welded or clamped together with 25 thou gaps between them on both inlet and exhaust. The exhaust also went through a conditioner bow with water and some chemicals in to cool and kill the nasties in the exhaust. You can imagine how many times we had to replace engines with bent conrods when the drivers didn't change the exhaust flame traps when they should and the water was pushed back into the engine causing a hydraulic lock.
Living the dream in Austria.
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Ken
Posts: 498
Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:07 am

Re: Battery powered train sets UK record

#33

Post by Ken »

https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias- ... rst-trial/

Aurizon, Australia’s largest rail freight operator, is to trial battery electric tenders that could electrify and decarbonise the country’s rail freight industry without the need for expensive railway electrification

I am not convinced that it is suitable for a freight train but what do i know.
Moxi
Posts: 2190
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2021 3:46 pm

Re: Battery powered train sets UK record

#34

Post by Moxi »

sounds like a hybrid system so it should be easy to implement and work quite well, baby steps for a part of the industry that is otherwise infrastructure constrained.

If the battery tender feeds motors to help the train to accelerate and take inclines then the diesel drives will be less polluting, I would think they will try to get regenerative charging on the declines and other than that it seems to suggest (to me at least) that there would be sections of the track that would be developed as rapid (on the move?) charge points coupled to environmental power sources, maybe in the form of solar parks adjacent to the rail way ?

Of course the other potential saving is the reduction in weight of the diesel required for conveying the train, yes the battery tender will replace some of the weight saved by reducing diesel carried but if they can install sufficient charge points then a small light battery could displace a much larger heavier volume of diesel with the associated benefits that brings.

We will know better when they start their trials and report developments but its a step in the right direction where thousands of kilometres of railway line cannot be electrified by current methods.

Moxi
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