Laser power transfer locomotive

Many railway lines rely on locomotives burning fossil fuels, mainly diesel.

Electrical traction has many advantages, as the power source is remote and stationary, and therefore many efficiency-improving and pollution reducing measures can be incorporated, not possible in a mobile system.

However, transmission to the power car of a train requires either an overhead line and pantograph, or a third rail - notoriously dangerous.

We propose a system which will have the advantages of electrical traction and can be employed in mountainous areas, reducing damage to lines by snow, ice and wind, and the need for maintainance and repair.

The power car has mounted on its roof a "power receiver". This is a parabolic dish, made of refractory material, backed by a jacket of liquid, the "working fluid", which is a closed system. A servo system is capable of maitaining the "aim" of the dish with great accuracy, despite the movements of the power car below it.

At intervals, on the tops of hills, are steel latticework towers, on the top of which is a high power laser, emission frequency to be chosen by the design team. If it were possible to use a visible frequency, this would produce an attractive light show whenever a train passed by.

This laser can be trained by a servo system analogous to the one on the power car, but with the advantage that the tower is relatively stiff and does not move.

Local windfarms could be used to feed power into the system.

A substantial electrical supply is delivered to the control building forming the base of each tower.

When a power car approches within the service area of the tower, the laser automatically aims round towards the receiver, which also aims itself otward the tower. When a lock has been established, the laser turns on. The reciever becmes very hot, and the heat is transferred by the working fluid to a turbine system and then directly to the wheels, or via an turbine/electric/notor system. "Waste" heat is used for heating the carriages if required. Surplus low-grade heat is then dumped by conventional radiatiors.

The laser tracks the power car until it reaches the limits of the service area, at which point it "hands over " to the next "cell".

An onboard power storage system is included to cope with tunnels which might cause obscuration of the beam for more than a few seconds.

This system has the advantage that only one train can move on one track at a time, reducing the possibility of collisions. Dual track systems would have pairs of lasers, one for the up-line, one for the down.