Battery Flattery? (mini blog)

First GWR Is Keen - Or Is It?

fbb spent at least an hour last evening trying to extricate the above video from his new Linux based system. Even after successfully finding it and downloading it, the old man is not at all sure how he did it.

What he is sure of is that the current craze for "saving the planet" with electricity is far from an exact science.

The various technicalities of generating the stuff are almost all partial creators of pollutants, greenhouse gases and stuff that we now don't like. The main advantage of electric vehicles is that they do not pollute the people standing, walking, cycling or living near them.

But the pollution is still there, but maybe somewhat reduced from the days of a steam train. 

Diesels are, of course, worse; as we have been told repeatedly over recent years and after we have all ditched our petrol cars in favour of diesels.

The above is something of an exemption; but it does make the case.

The problem with battery electric trains is the batteries - it always has been. Wikipedia has a huge article on the problems of battery recycling. It includes a whole heap of "challenging" thoughts. fbb's favourite is as follows:-

The cost of recycling  lithium-ion batteries is more expensive than mining for new lithium!

So it simply isn't going to work commercially. Lithium-ion batteries are the mainstay of all electric vehicles at the moment.

The main type of power source used of old - and still used in most road vehicles - is the good old lead acid battery. This is a really evil device treated with extreme caution by your local waste and recycling depot (if it accepts them at all!!).

But battery trains are nothing new. The ever reliable Wikipedia tells us that the first battery train ran in 1864! 

This one ...

... was designed by a certain Mr Edison!

This is a replica of a battery train that ran in Australia.

It was a diesel unit, stripped of its engines and fitted with electric motors. The power came from solar panels on the roof. It only ran in this form experimentally on a closed line. Of course there might well be a bit more sunshine in Oz than in Ceckhuddersfax Yorkshire.

In the past, it was the batteries wot dun it!

Lead acid batteries are heavy; there's a clue in the word "lead"! So an awful lot of the power is needed to carry the batteries around! Modem batteries are better but see above re recycling!

The most interesting experience in the UK was the two car ex-diesel unit of which this was part.

It operated from 1955 on the Aberdeen to Ballater branch (Scotland) ...

... and ceased when the branch closed in 1966.

fbb can find no on-line accounts of whether the experiment was successful either technically  or from a reliability point of view.  Presumably, as no other trains were created, it was not the rip-roaring wonder of the age.

In Japan (where else?) several of these units operate on quiet branch lines.

Merseytravel has one of these, with more expected ...

... but Mayor Rotheram's plan seems to be to run them from the third rail as normal and then trundle on battery at the extremities, as is currently the scheme at Kirkby. But Steve has more wide-ranging problems with his new trains than just a few Ever Readies.

He is going very grey!

But first Great Western have recently broken a record.

 Next Electric blog : Friday 29 Aug 

This week has been preparation and printing time for the fbbs' leaflet that accompanies, supports and publicises their monthly fellowship meetings. Suffice it to say that yesterday daytime was technically "challenging" ...

... but MOST of the challenges were resolved (until evening!!!!!) in a somewhat innovative way. Thankfully, no computers were damaged in the resolution thereof.

No axes were blunted either!

Normal blogging service should return tomorrow.