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Battery powered trains are a thing. Not all train tracks are electrified, even in Germany, and there are some places where a train line can be extended beyond a

Battery powered trains are a thing. Not all train tracks are electrified, even in Germany, and there are some places where a train line can be extended beyond an electrified segment. They charge through the normal overhead wire with about 1 MW with no extra provisions. https://stadlerrail.com/en/flirt-akku/details/ https://stadlerrail.com/en/flirt-akku/details/ These are new-ish to a point where only train nerds know about them, but they're also old enough to be a fully certified COTS product that you can just buy the way that you buy your normal trains also. Considering how fast that industry moves, I think that is saying something.

cogman10 2y ago
The fact that all train motors are electric (AFAIK) means that they are somewhat perfect targets for batteries and electrifying. Especially since once the train reaches cruising speed it requires remarkably little input energy. A big battery to absorb the stopping energy and move the train up to cruising speed makes a lot of sense. And it'd be easier/safer to electrify lines as you now just need overhead lines every n miles to keep the batteries charged vs having to line the entire rail with a 3rd rail. You could still have a diesel motor backup, but ultimately you could save tons on fuel costs as it wouldn't be responsible for powering the entire trip.
kazinator 2y ago
> Not all train tracks are electrified That doesn't stop traditional "electric" trains, which actually have diesel engines that drive generators, which drive electric motors.
algo_trader 2y ago
Do you know how they feed a 1MW from the battery to the (AC?) motor ? DO they have a stand alone inverter ? AND a step-up transformer ?
- hengheng 2y ago
  I do not know. The train has to have an inverter anyways to vary its rpm, and I assume that the motor runs on less than 15 kV anyways. So it could conceivably be done without a separate DC-DC step-up converter, but I wouldn't know for sure.
defrost 2y ago
In more recent train nerd news, large scale regenerative battery electric trains are advancing from 'cute' to almost pulling some of the worlds longest and heaviest loads. The 2022 announcemnt of Fortescue's Infinity Train for use in Western Australia's Pilbara region to "drop" iron ore loads from inland plateau heights to sea level over a 100 km or so have advanced to including a few early regen battery electric locomotives (From UK Williams Advanced Engineering) in their trains. These are "trains" with five locomotives (two at either end and one in the middle) and a hundred+ rail cars each with a few hundred tonne of ore. 2022 Announcement: https://www.railtech.com/rolling-stock/2022/03/04/australian-mining-company-works-on-infinity-train-using-gravity-to-regenerating-batteries/ https://www.railtech.com/rolling-stock/2022/03/04/australian... webcache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.railtech.com%2Frolling-stock%2F2022%2F03%2F04%2Faustralian-mining-company-works-on-infinity-train-using-gravity-to-regenerating-batteries%2F https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%... Current status is a single line item in current annual report citing purchases and research costs for "Progress on the decarbonisation of our rail operations". To date no train has been fully battery electric, just running with the inclusion of some regen-battery-electric locos.

cogman10 2y ago

The fact that all train motors are electric (AFAIK) means that they are somewhat perfect targets for batteries and electrifying. Especially since once the train reaches cruising speed it requires remarkably little input energy. A big battery to absorb the stopping energy and move the train up to cruising speed makes a lot of sense. And it'd be easier/safer to electrify lines as you now just need overhead lines every n miles to keep the batteries charged vs having to line the entire rail with a 3rd rail. You could still have a diesel motor backup, but ultimately you could save tons on fuel costs as it wouldn't be responsible for powering the entire trip.

kazinator 2y ago

> Not all train tracks are electrified That doesn't stop traditional "electric" trains, which actually have diesel engines that drive generators, which drive electric motors.

algo_trader 2y ago

Do you know how they feed a 1MW from the battery to the (AC?) motor ? DO they have a stand alone inverter ? AND a step-up transformer ?

hengheng 2y ago
I do not know. The train has to have an inverter anyways to vary its rpm, and I assume that the motor runs on less than 15 kV anyways. So it could conceivably be done without a separate DC-DC step-up converter, but I wouldn't know for sure.

defrost 2y ago

In more recent train nerd news, large scale regenerative battery electric trains are advancing from 'cute' to almost pulling some of the worlds longest and heaviest loads. The 2022 announcemnt of Fortescue's Infinity Train for use in Western Australia's Pilbara region to "drop" iron ore loads from inland plateau heights to sea level over a 100 km or so have advanced to including a few early regen battery electric locomotives (From UK Williams Advanced Engineering) in their trains. These are "trains" with five locomotives (two at either end and one in the middle) and a hundred+ rail cars each with a few hundred tonne of ore. 2022 Announcement: https://www.railtech.com/rolling-stock/2022/03/04/australian-mining-company-works-on-infinity-train-using-gravity-to-regenerating-batteries/ https://www.railtech.com/rolling-stock/2022/03/04/australian... webcache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.railtech.com%2Frolling-stock%2F2022%2F03%2F04%2Faustralian-mining-company-works-on-infinity-train-using-gravity-to-regenerating-batteries%2F https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%... Current status is a single line item in current annual report citing purchases and research costs for "Progress on the decarbonisation of our rail operations". To date no train has been fully battery electric, just running with the inclusion of some regen-battery-electric locos.