Revolutionary New Train Propulsion System

toughbuttfair

I got this idea from reading about Project Orion. Project Orion was a spacecraft powered by nuclear propulsion, where nuclear explosions would propel a shielded spacecraft to within 12% of the speed of light. You can read more about it here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion))

Now obviously setting off nuclear explosions behind a train every three seconds would not be very good for the environment. You might set fire to things and cause a bit of damage within a three to five mile radius. Instead we could use exploding badgers.

The badgers would be filled with compressed air, dropped off the back of the train and exploded, and the train would be propelled forward. It would be useful for commuter trains or trains used in a push-pull configuration. It would be ideal for lightly used lines such as Limerick to Ballybrophy, Limerick to Rosslare, or the WRC.

It might not be useful in an urban environment as urban dwellers would not be used to the smell of badger, a smell which might confuse them. However badgers are common in rural areas.

The obvious benefits would be lower fuel costs, which would in turn improve the viability of lightly used services. It would also reduce the spread of TB.

The cons would include badgers filled with compressed air feeling sore. There would also be a possibility that train drivers would strike, as a result of having to take on extra duties; such as filling the badgers with compressed air, and general badger wrangling. A comprehensive training course would be necessary.

I'm thinking of putting forward this idea for the Your Country, Your Call competition and would appreciate some feedback.

http://www.yourcountryyourcall.com/

Fratton Fred

I think they tried this before, but with metal cylinder shaped badgers placed at regular intervals along the track.

They called it the atmospheric railway and it ended in Dalkey. The road where the station used to be is called Atmospheric road, just off Barnhill Avenue.

Run_to_da_hills

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I think they tried this before, but with metal cylinder shaped badgers placed at regular intervals along the track.

They called it the atmospheric railway and it ended in Dalkey. The road where the station used to be is called Atmospheric road, just off Barnhill Avenue.

It was the rats that put an end to it by constantly chewing into the leather that was used in the bellows.

Cookie_Monster

That is all

Cuddlesworth

Why stop at badgers? You could maintain a constant velocity through the use of cows placed at key positions throughout the train. The high levels of methane could be used to boost the engines output and subsidize the badger momentum through built up areas.

corktina

down with this sort of thing


:badger:

FlameoftheWest

Nothing beats this for sheer insanity and proof that higher education is no measure of intelligence. In the mid 1960's engineers and scientists put a jet engine on top of a rail car and they were 100% serious too.



There is even a model which incorpoates the sounds of a US railroad bell horn with jet engine take off sounds! Clearly them stories of the CIA putting LSD in the US water supply have to be true when you see this.

http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.katousa.com/Kobo/images/E-NRDC-Jet/RDC-Jet-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.katousa.com/Kobo/E-NRDC-Jet.html&usg=__dmIdUCf3MIcvGmOgDX3S5OR_PpA=&h=653&w=1200&sz=193&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=JnSd6H1dJULigM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRDC%2Bjet%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

dynamick

10,000km/h US Army Rocket Sled

Carawaystick

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

Nothing beats this for sheer insanity and proof that higher education is no measure of intelligence. In the mid 1960's engineers and scientists put a jet engine on top of a rail car and they were 100% serious too.

The original TGV was powered by turbines til the oil crises hit. In France new lines open with trains going 320kmh while In Ireland old lines reopen where the trains can barely do a quarter of that. If it doesn't rain.

Sponge Bob

In Ireland we will never use something as sturdy as a Badger when a McGerbil will do.

SeanW

I don't think Cookie Monster went far enough!

Victor

It is noted in the Dunboyne EIS that badgers are rarely injured on railways compared to roads. While I though this was because one typically has fewer trains on a railway than vehicles on a road, it is instead due to the badgers already being on the train and exiting the rear, so they can't actually be hit by the train. I wonder how they excape being hit by the next train though.

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Several forums have official "off-topic" threads. I propose this be the one for C&T.

FlameoftheWest

Carawaystick wrote: »

The original TGV was powered by turbines til the oil crises hit. In France new lines open with trains going 320kmh while In Ireland old lines reopen where the trains can barely do a quarter of that. If it doesn't rain.

But those were internal turbine engines driving a power bogie through shafts and gears and did not have a real Boeing jet aircraft engines mounted on the roof providing jet aircraft direct propulsion complete with afterburner. The New York Central got noise pollution complaints from people several miles form the track. It would of bursted the eardrums and blown the knickers off anyone who was standing on a train platform as it passed by even at low speeds.

Cookie_Monster

is there an underlying badger joke here I'm missing or just randomness

FlameoftheWest

Check it out the German's put a propellor on a railcar:

jimmycrackcorm

I don't think the idea will work. But then I might just be a skeptic. How much compressed air can you fit into a badger? Actually the cow idea is better if you can use them to generate methane. You could even have a system of methane fill stations at every field along the way - just like those military aircraft re-fuelling ideas in the air - except in the fields alongside the tracks.