£9 million fund opens to railway innovators and inventors
Rail Minister launches fifth round of the First of a Kind competition, inviting cutting-edge ideas that will improve passenger experience and decarbonise the rail network.
A new £9 million competition to find cutting-edge ideas set to transform the future of the railways has opened today, as Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris and Innovate UK launched the 2021 First of a Kind (FOAK) competition.
What are we
7 comments:
Easy! Stick a long tapered snout on the front of every train. 2% reduction in fuel usage - give me the £9m!
Make all lines run down hill. All terminal stations to be on two levels.
Many many years ago, when New Scientist was a good magazine, they had in each edition
an article by Daedalus postulating a weird but theoretically possible use of technology.
One article was on the possibility of a steam engine powered by growing, cutting and using grass on the line as fuel. A wide mower at front.
He found that if the track and train was several times wider than existing European railways and the train only ran once a week or so it would be possible. He suggested that East Euopean plains or N American prairie would be suitable.
I suggest this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=029XfV6vHyA
I reckon wind power. Massive masts with sails like the old tea-clippers attached to the locomotives. You hoist them when the winds are right, and switch off all that nasty fossil fuel power for as long as you can. Most sail journeys would tend to end up in Newcastle or Aberdeen, of course, due to the prevailing winds. You'd need to be able to haul them down pretty quickly every time you approached a bridge or tunnel, and hope you had built up enough speed to coast through.
Ed - but you've already given away the patent opportunity!
Doonhamer - I remember Daedalus, the best thing in New Scientist. It's what a mag like that should be about instead of preaching political nonsense. It may be worth passing on the grass idea to the HS2 project.
Sobers - that's what I like about YouTube, fascinating bits and pieces such as this which bring in links to other inventions or ideas.
Sam - the sails could be computer-controlled to have them hauled down automatically as the train approaches a tunnel. A clockwork system could take it through the tunnel, wound up by the passengers as part of their fare.
"A clockwork system could take it through the tunnel, wound up by the passengers as part of their fare."
I was going to say that trains shouldn't have seats and instead every passenger gets an exercise bike to pedal to generate electricity to power the train, but I then thought that some eco-freak will probably come up with the same idea in all seriousness.............
Sobers - I'd be astonished if some eco-freak hasn't come up with something along those lines.
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