oh dear

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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 21 6:50 pm Post subject: oh dear
not a railway, not a trolly bus nor a tram not too sure that the authors of this have thought beyond "a couple of mil to look into it, thank you very much, we expect our cut" freight seems ideal for eco rail in bulk and local leccy road haulage distribution for the last few miles sensible "green infrastructure" appears to be off the menu

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 21 6:59 am Post subject:
I have to admit that that was my first thought. A bit of loot a bit of greenwash.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15996

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 21 7:50 am Post subject:
I take it this is the idea of putting electric pick up along roads for heavy goods vehicles to pick up. Has Boris's backing, so bound to be a non starter as the man has as good a grasp of engineering as truth.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 21 8:49 am Post subject:

a bit less practical than steam radio(a real thing that worked but was a bit cumbersome)and a vacuum in a slot railways(a real thing that did not work at full scale)

a trolley bus goes slowly and stops a lot
an electric train is on fixed rails, ie no swerves,dips or bumps and goes fast
electric trolley wagon tries to do train without rails

the driving and "social" aspects are of concern

nick the wires, short the wires for fun, die on the wires all seem plausible

other vehicles use the road so the wagon my have to take sudden evasive action and disconnect in a hurry
etc

a train can shift many containers per employee hour, wagons cannot,
we have the routes, they need updating rather than another johnson coke and an envelope project.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15996

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 21 7:01 am Post subject:

Yes, remembering back to the trolley buses, they used to have to carry a long pole to reconnect if the connection came off. It might be fun at junctions as several lorries try to go in different directions.

The idea of this is that they can pick up power to charge batteries though I think, although the batteries are going to increase the weight or decrease the capacity rather I would think.

As you say Dpack, rather better to use the railway and then local electric vehicles for distribution. We really have to rethink the whole supply chain rather than do 'clever' (?) things with one bit of it. I remember the artic that supplied a little shop in one of the local villages that was nearly as big as the shop.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 21 12:58 pm Post subject:
About as likely as a tunnel to Ireland.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 21 3:56 pm Post subject:
a motorway with a dodgems style electrified mesh above and earthing wheels/surface below would be fun

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 21 3:58 pm Post subject:
ps the kerosene radio works fine if you keep the windows open in a siberian winter

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15996

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 21 7:26 am Post subject:
I have seen a steam record player. The model engineers made one just for fun.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 21 9:01 am Post subject:
were there any "chuffing"issues to interfere with the tunes?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 21 10:58 am Post subject:

a letter to the G

----------------------------------------------

Trains could be greenest solution to a sustainable transport network in Britain. Photograph: robert france/Alamy
Letters
Thu 29 Jul 2021 18.15 BST

Last modified on Thu 29 Jul 2021 18.27 BST

The experiment with electric lorries on the M180 (UK government backs scheme for motorway cables to power lorries, 27 July) is laughable when compared with the lack of interest shown by the government in furthering railway electrification at a time of an HGV driver shortage.

Just 8.5% of freight locomotives in the UK are electric. This lags lamentably behind mainland Europe, thanks in part to gaps as short as two miles in the electrified network. Aside from complete routes, there are merely 50 miles in total which, after electrification, could decarbonise over two million annual miles of freight haulage. Just 14 of these miles connect Britain’s busiest container port, Felixstowe, to the electrified network at Ipswich. The gaps exist thanks to electrified lines largely following radial passenger flows from London, whereas freight routes ignore these.

I held an HGV1 licence from 1974 to 2019 and can’t imagine how I’d ever overtake a slower electric lorry. And merge lanes to change routes only where the high-voltage wires are strung? That’s not going to happen. Any advisory jobs going at the Department for Transport?
Rob Harris
Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 21 1:39 pm Post subject:
And meanwhile HS2 is a expensive disaster which won't even get beyond Birmingham.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 21 2:14 pm Post subject:
im not keen on hs2 a well planned rail update would be better value and more use, far "greener" and less destructive imho hs2 is more about kleptocracy than sensible infrastructure

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15996

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 21 8:32 am Post subject:
I agree about electrifying the rail network, and perhaps reopening some of the lines shut during and since the 1960s. Routes that were not economically viable then might well be now, and might stop long traffic jams to some places with suitable car parking. From this area, rail is the preferred method of getting to London, but getting to the station often requires a car.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 21 1:43 pm Post subject:
Before the doom of Beeching my neighbour purchased a hay loading machine in East Grinstead and had it delivered by train to Lampeter station.

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