Christ, even the lettering on the side… younger me from the 90s would be baffled to find out how sick current me could get of cyberpunkerinos aesthetics. debord-tired

  • Hexboare [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    26·
    3 months ago

    Given how old battery-powered electric cars are, I doubt this is actually new.

    Edit:

    Experiments with accumulator railcars, as they were originally called, were conducted from around 1890 in Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy. Full implementation of battery trains were undertaken with various degrees of success. In the U.S., railcars of the Edison-Beach type, with nickel-iron batteries were used from 1911. In New Zealand, a battery-electric Edison railcar with a range of 160 km (99 mi) operated from 1926 to 1934 on the 34 km (21 mi) long Little River Branch line. The Drumm nickel-zinc battery was used on four 2-car sets between 1932 and 1946 on the Harcourt Street Line in Ireland. British Railways used lead-acid batteries in a British Rail BEMU from 1958 to 1966 on the 38 mile long Aberdeen to Ballater line in Scotland.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      18·
      3 months ago

      I stand corrected there, then.

      I figured if something was amiss with the train and the corpo news claims about it, train enthusiasts would find out quickly.

      • invalidusernamelol [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        3 months ago

        There’s a company called SunTrain that’s actually doing something kinda useful in this field by creating battery cars.

        The idea is that you charge them up in one place then roll the energy to where it’s needed. So you can spool up remote solar and wind without needing to run transmission lines or drop them in areas where there was a natural disaster and the rail lines are functional before power distribution.