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On May 7, 9:05 am, "DW downunder" noname wrote:
4. NO-ONE has mentioned the plethora of hybrid battery-equipped
rollingstock
currently prototyped, on trial, in low volume production etc around the
world. Given Crossrail's gestation, can I assert with some confidence that
by then it will be quite normal for trains to extend a moderate distance
beyond the wires or juice rail. 25kV to Reading would not necessarily be a
pre-requisite to CrossRail service by the mid-10s.

No, you can't.

Batteries are a crap way of storing energy. Making batteries not be a
crap way of storing energy has been a major preoccupation among
engineers and physicists and - even more importantly - the people who
fund them for decades. They've made batteries be a slightly less crap
way of storing energy. They haven't made them not be a crap way of
storing energy. None of the current trials do anything to reverse
that.

At absolute best, a battery train might just about be a solution for
Henley. It would be an insane solution for 6ish tph on the GWML.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

Thank you, gentlemen - and your sources?

Perhaps a little more depth would help me understand - as I understand you,
with supercapacitors, emerging lithium technologies and our old faithful
lead-acid gel we haven't yet got a package of technologies that can be tuned
to the precise characteristics of suburban/interurban rail - and can't
expect one by the time Crossrail is commissioned? Is it the vibrating
environment, the heating and cooling cycles, the economics of battery life
and charging cycles, or the energy storage per unit mass that is/are the
"fatal" issues from your data sources? Crossrail is at best 5 years out.
Hybrid motor car products are moving into the mainstream, 3rd generation
Prius, local manufacture of larger Hybrids by Toyota outside Japan (hybrid
Camry to be made in Australia, release 2010, for example), more
manufacturers in the market, Obama forcing GM and Chrysler down the hybrid,
ecodiesel, light and green road, etc. With all this putting volume into the
automotive propulsion battery market, you're convinced price and performance
won't trend towards technical and economic viability for transit and urban
rail traction applications?

OK

David down under