New start-up in Boston area - The Rail-Pod

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Jerry Schneider

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Mar 31, 2009, 5:22:04 PM3/31/09
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http://rail-pod.com/ Uses a gyroscope to help stay on one track of a
two-track railroad - also an "arm" that helps to prevent tipping.
There probably is a lot of "empty" railroad track around just waiting
for a Rail-Pod to make use of it. Wonder how the switching works?

Jerry Roane

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Mar 31, 2009, 5:45:57 PM3/31/09
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Jerry

I guess these guys never played with a toy gyroscope.  I can just see these things waving in a slow circle before they jump off the track and spin to a stop.  Gyro cars are in very old patents.  Not a new concept.  The railroad would have a huge safety problem with these being treated as maintenance type vehicles on the rails.  CapMetro is getting a big bunch of fines for ignoring the railroad laws running their European train sets back and forth on freight tracks.  Now the latest for these moth balled trains is May 15th they think they might get them in public service.  The solution was to fire the safety manager of the French company in charge of operating the trains.  Kind of like a symbolic firing of Waggoner.  Somebody had to take one for the team.  This time they are calling for the subcontractor not someone actually responsible for the idiotic and unsafe use of a rail road track.  Real trains don't mess around when thery collide with a passenger train set even if they are just playing like they are running passengers with empty rail vehicles.   The fines are piling up from their activities in February.  Playing train chicken gets you some big fines. 

These little train things would need to follow the same rules as a big train so these can't run as described without gutting the railroad safety rules that took over 100 years to collect. 

Jerry Roane

Mr_Grant

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Apr 2, 2009, 6:37:32 PM4/2/09
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I have to think it would rely on the conventional track switch.
The drag arms deploy at low speeds -- making a lovely whap whap whap
whap sound?
Where in the U.S. is there enough parallel rail line to allow these
pods a continuous route that is barrier-separated from regular trains?
I wonder if Sound Transit would consider these for non-peak or late
night service on Sounder and Link routes?

Mr_Grant

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Apr 3, 2009, 3:30:59 AM4/3/09
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So this new article at http://tinyurl.com/cxk49k
seems to say the pods can pass each other by somehow switching from
one rail to the other.

Do we know Jose Gomez-Ibanez? Does he know anything about PRT or does
he just express himself poorly?

David

Jerry Schneider

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Apr 3, 2009, 12:16:51 PM4/3/09
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At 12:30 AM 4/3/2009, you wrote:

>So this new article at http://tinyurl.com/cxk49k
>seems to say the pods can pass each other by somehow switching from
>one rail to the other.

Hard to imagine how that could be done.

>Do we know Jose Gomez-Ibanez? Does he know anything about PRT or does
>he just express himself poorly?

I know of him but not personally. He is highly regarded in the field.
He knows about
PRT for sure but, like Vucan, probably isn't up-to-date and his
objections are probably
not founded on any substantive knowledge.

For me, it's just another illustration of the damage that has been
done by "visionaries"
who think they need to present metro-wide networks to make their case
- not a good
strategy. A Rosemont-type increment was a far better strategy, IMHO.

Jerry

Michael Weidler

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Apr 4, 2009, 6:56:13 AM4/4/09
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Cute idea. Might actually have a chance since it leverages current infrastructure. Will obviously have the same problems as any other ground level automated system.

--- On Tue, 3/31/09, Jerry Schneider <j...@peak.org> wrote:

Walter Brewer

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Apr 4, 2009, 8:36:17 AM4/4/09
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It migh overcome one fault of rail systems of not being personal and on demand, but the rails still limit its destination flexibility.
 
 Walt Brewer 
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