In article , Aidan Stanger
wrote:
Michael Bell wrote:
In article , Paul Weaver:
"Michael Bell" wrote...

The never-stop railway consists of cabins for 6-8 passengers
which are moved along the track by a continuous spiral laid between
the tracks. The pitch of the spiral is fine at stations, so at the
stations the gaps between the cabins close up and the cabins move
slowly and the passengers can get in and out. As the cabins reach the
end of the station the doors close and when they leave the station
the pitch of the spiral coarsens so the gap between the cabins widens
and they pick up speed. The cabins can be slowed down to go round
sharp corners. The front and back wheels of the cabins run on
different rails so the cabins can go up and down steep slopes without
tilting them, in the way that steps on an escalator do. To be able to
go round sharp corners and go up and down steep slopes are important
advantages in fitting such a system into a town. The system was
successfully demonstrated at an exhibition in Wembley in the 1920s.

Similar to ski lifts then?

Yes.

(snip)

And just where in London would you put them?

That's for others to work out, and another correspondent has.

Don't you think the ability to stop is important? Remember, the
escalators all have emergency stop buttons.

Speeds are low and like ski lifts they can have emergency stop buttons,

How do you expect passengers to board and alight safely with crowded
platforms?

If you want sharp corners and steep slopes, get a monorail instead! Or
maybe you should consider an atmospheric railway - AIUI that system
(originally invented by Brunel, but not practical until the late 20th
century when more reliable material were available) is far cheaper than
linear induction motors.

A minor point.

If you are talking about airport Travelators, then yes, exactly like
them, except that none I have seen are CASCADED, the key feature of my
proposal, There is plenty of space to cascade them, but airport
authorities WANT to slow down and spread out the flow of passengers (they
have different walking speeds) to make it easier to cope peaks of flow,
and also to give the passengers lots of waiting time which they could use
for shopping.

How would cascaded travelators give the passengers less time for
shopping?

Speed may seem important for airports, but really, as I say the airport
authorities want to spread out the peaks of large aircraft. And to give them
time to shop.


We can all walk at 4 mph (= 1M/sec), so I think 4 mph steps would be
acceptable, so 3 belts would get us up to 12 mph and 4 belts would
get us up to 16 mph. This is much faster than town buses and after
allowing for the time taken walking to the station and waiting for
the train, competitive with Metros.

No. You and I can. Old people and wheelchairs cant. Besides, would you
like to ride on a skateboard at 16mph?

This is a misunderstanding. If you are on a 16 mph belt, the neighbouring
belt is at 12 mph.

So what would you do when you reached the end?

Either you do it as an endless loop, or have longer slow belts than fast
ones.
Slow side
.................................................. ............
.........................................
...................
Fast side

So that as you get to the end of the fast belt, you transfer to the
slow belts.

[snip]

The problem is the space between the belts. Have you ever wondered why
escalators have those brushes at the edges? It's to keep people away
from the narrow gap between the escalator and the wall, which is
surprisingly dangerous. Children whose footwear got caught in the gap
have very painfully lost feet! Now escalators and travelators are
designed to prevent such accidents, but if people had to cross the gap,
it would be much harder to keep them away from it.

You see really good design nowadays.

Michael Bell.

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