Re: Homebuilt train to Orbost

[Adam <adamdunning@start.com.au>]

Now I hate to be a spoil sport, but if your talking about a full sized
train (like a three or four car suburban or interurban setup), then a
couple of things are going to restrict the viability of a solar powered
train.

Firstly, Solar energy is very inefficient, especially photovolatic
(solar) cells.  For their weight and size they would not be able to
provide the sort and size of power/current that would be required to
power the train, unless it is very light (including patrons).

Secondly, with safety becoming a more and more important factor in
design for all vehicles, you are faced with either having to make
vehicles out of strong metals, like steel, or lots of aluminium to get
a suitable strength.  The problem is both options result in a lot of
weight.  To over come this, you could use exotic materials such as
carbon fibre which is very expensive to buy and work, or other metals
like magnesium which leave no room for working into shape.

Now if a company is going to build a train, which will they build, the
more expensive one or the cheaper one.  In this day and age, they will
almost always go for the cheaper option, which is the steel and/or
aluminium options.

While in an ideal society we would find a way to recieve enough energy
from the sun, the current technology leavels make it near impossible to
make a train which is fully solar powered.  Again I remind, my comments
are for a full size train.

In article <cgD46.26$X64.4425@nsw.nnrp.telstra.net>,
  "David Martin" <d_martin@mountains.net.au> wrote:
> Should be more of it!
>
> My idea is to build a solar powered train. If solar cars can crack
100km/h,
> think what steel wheels on steel rail could do with one or two solar
> carriages in tow.
>
> --
> David Martin
> Web Developer - FrontPage, ASP, Access
> Info Blue Mountains Railway Pages
> http://info.mountains.net.au/rail
>
> "Peter Parker" <parkerp@alphalink.com.au> wrote in message
> news:3a4f0c59@news.alphalink.com.au...
> > The following may be an amusing read.
> >
> > http://www.bluehaze.com.au/mmedia/rtrain/rtrain1.html
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
>
>


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