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Another one using contactless power transfer.

Valid points, add cell phone masts to the list. I certainly agree with replacing copper overhead phone lines with buried fibre, the latter wouldn't need to be a radial system, it would hop from house to house like a ring main, so wouldn't be that expensive. Another pet hate of mine is external...

Been away for a while. One place where a 3rd rail system could be implemented would be on lines which are not yet electrified, especially where bridges would have to be raised. Just found this video - pretty much the same as what I was thinking.

^^ Well I never ended up in Macclesfield, so I missed that. :p

^^ That'll be it.

Yeah, and heat build-up too. Maybe modern materials would help, Graphene seems to the electrical elixir at the moment. One (rather ugly) solution would be to have a rotating pickup and slip rings. The ratio of the wheel diameter to the slip ring diameter would give a suitable linear speed at...

Many thanks for that, it's nice to have a constructive and informed reply. Safety: I see your point 100%, which is why I suggested a "connect on demand" arrangement and keeping the 3rd rail out of dangerous locations. As sections of potentially live rail would be relative short a train would...

What's the reason for that then?

^^ Interesting. I would have thought 3rd rail would be less vulnerable due to the fact that it is stronger than wires? If the 3rd rail was damaged I reckon it would be easier to fix, no need for working at height for a start. The system I proposed is a hybrid with 3rd rail, battery and...

I would suggest something along these lines: http://busandtrain.blogspot.com/2018/05/guest-post-new-stadler-trains-for.html about half way down where it says "First look at a bi-mode unit diesel power car These power car units have four impressive V8 engines enabling services that could run...

Just as well. Such a radical change would have to be dealt with bit by bit, it would be too much of an exercise to do the whole lot in one go. Back in the day diesels replaced steam over a period of time whereas technically it could have been done overnight as it was basically just the locos...

Let's not forget the word "speculative" in the thread title. With the emphasis on "Yet". Battery tech, along with capacitor development is coming on in leaps and bounds. Obviously existing infrastructure isn't going to be scrapped until it's at the end of its useful life, neither will...

Pendolino. I'm not very well up on train types :oops:

Two days on the trot now overhead cabling faults have seriously disrupted Virgin services. With the advent of much improved battery technology I would like to see third rail pickup systems used in conjunction with batteries and maybe fuel cells. The third rails could be positioned in safe...

I've skimmed this thread, but this sort of thing has happened to me twice. Once when there was no ticket on the seat-back, I can accept that it may have been dislodged, but the other was yesterday on the Glasgow-Euston Virgin service. The indicator above the seat said "Available if Unoccupied"...

This has happened to me twice recently - arrived at an unfamiliar station to find my train cancelled. I need to know which train I can catch that stops at [Sheffield], but the destination boards on the platforms only show the final destination, you have to go to the platform to see where the...

Many thanks for your reply. It turned out that I got the earlier Penzance train from Leeds (rather than the Kings Cross one) which went on to call at Sheffield anyway, so I just broke my journey at Wakefield as normal.

I've been trying to get some sense out of a TOC, but they don't seem to understand my question which is: I will be buying a cheap day return from Sheffield to Bradford and back via Leeds. On the way back I wish to break my journey at Wakefield Westgate. So far so good. However, some trains...

^^ makes sense:)

^^ That makes sense, just going by what I was told, I was only a kid at the time! Thinking about it, if it was able to catch the leading edge of a carriage it would catch everything that stuck up. If it was a ttreadle operated by the wheels it would go Bang-bang--bang-bang and so on, IIRC it...