Re: Re: " Windsplitters"
IS Edit
Monday, September 10, 2001 11:56 AM
Don,
That is one very stylish car.
Those flywheel trolley buses ran for years in
Germany and Switzerland. They were called "Gyro Buses". They seemed to work
fine. The only one I ever rode on was in Trier or Trittenheim or some such place
on the Moselle River (I'd have to look it up on the map). The wires did not go
into downtown. After traversing the CBD the bus pulled under the trolley wires
which had pans on them. He released the poles from inside and they went up and
hit the pans which guided them onto the wires.
I have no idea of the mass of the flywheel,
but...
London Transport cut one tonne off the weight of a
double decker and it's fuel consumption improved by 10%. Put a big flywheel on a
bus and start and stop the extra weight every two blocks all day and think what
that will do to its power consumption, not to mention increased road damage. And
you have to make the chassis, brakes, suspension et al stronger to carry
the extra weight as well.
The problems with the flywheel and dual power
trolley buses are weight and complexity. In most applications the benefit isn't
worth the cost.
Cheers,
Bob Murphy
----- Original Message -----From: Donald CampbellSent: Monday, September 10, 2001 9:40 PMSubject: [TramsDownUnder] Re: " Windsplitters"Following all the recent talk about "pointed-front" Brisbane cars, thought I'd do a search of the internet looking "McKeen cars" sites and found quite a few. Interesting discovery was that one is being restored at present in the US of A. McKeens car No.22 of the Virginia & Truckee is being restored at the Nevada State Railroad Museum at Carson City NV. A couple of pictures follow.The engines used in McKeen's car were usually Hall-Scott engines. They were a famous and respected San Francisco engine builder who had connections to the Fageol bus and truck company and also to the Twin Coach company.I was looking for a picture of the McKeens car that was electric but had no luck. I've seen a picture in a book somewhere of such a car with a trolleypole.Enjoyed the posts on gas powered buses. I remember several years ago hearing that San Francisco had an experimental trolley bus fitted with a fly-wheel. As the bus proceeded normally under wires the fly-wheel was spun, and the energy stored could be used to move the bus for distance of a couple of km beyond the end of the wire. Any info out there? Was I spun a story?Question: If the Americans call petrol "gas", what is the stuff that comes out of American stoves called?Regards,DeeCee
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