Return of the Perpetual Motion Gadgetbahn
  mcloughlin.dj

Remember Trampower? It was an obscure organisation (given public support in Light Rail Transit Association literature) which built a lightweight "tram" that was trialled at Wirral and then Blackpool (where it caught fire) a decade ago. It even tendered its vehicle for the new Toronto fleet!

Well, it has turned up again, and proposes to run that very same tram (!) on a line in Preston UK, presumably as either the 11 or the 86.

Sarcasm off.

I have been reading its website and it really reads like a cross between science fiction and a scam. It claims that the tram not only uses so little power that it pays for itself from power savings, but that it also generates power that can be sold, hence it is a mobile power company as well as a tram.

It also claims its tram can operate at 150kmh under a single-wire, non-tensioned overhead wire with 50m pole spacings! Hey, quick, lets build a line from Sydney to Melbourne in the median strip of the Hume Freeway! None of this spending trillions on high-speed rail, build a high-speed tram that costs nothing and generates power for all the towns and cities along the way!

Is Trampower just some person's fantasy? The website doesn't even say who is behind it. If this hadn't been floating about for 20 years, I'd say it was a scam, but I tend to the fantasy given the longevity.

https://www.globalrailnews.com/2018/01/11/contractor-appointed-to-build-prestons-pilot-tram-line/ https://www.globalrailnews.com/2018/01/11/contractor-appointed-to-build-prestons-pilot-tram-line/

http://www.trampower.co.uk/index.html http://www.trampower.co.uk/index.html

Pardon my skepticism but I do not think it unwarranted here.


--
david mcloughlin, Wellington no more
"Holy writ requires unholy scrutiny."