Wayside Rail and Solar Research

Wayside Rail

I am very interested in the wayside rail and the solar projects on the 1/12 scale model fro the Spartan Superway Project. The wayside rail will give the cars motors power as they move along the tracks of the Superway network. This rail on the full scale model will be high off the ground, out of the reach of any bystanders. But on the 1/12 scale model (which we will be showing at events), the rail will be just in reach for a small child to touch and an easy grab away for an adult. In the 2014-2015 Spartan Superway report they calculated that each car needs about 2 Amps of current (seen in figure 1).

Figure 1. Spartan Superway 2014-2015 current requirement calculations

This is a problem because we want to power multiple cars with the wayside rail, which will take more much more current. I have thought of a few different ways that we can avoid any accidents. First, we can insulate the outside of the wayside rail and the collector arm that will be protruding off of the bogey. This can be done with a liquid electrical tape, heat shrink wraps, or other means of insulation that will look professional. Once the rail and arm are insulated we could configure the collector shoe in such a way that it would be untouchable, much like these rails in figure 2.

Figure 2. Possible design for the wayside rail

The collector shoe could have a roller or a brush on it and roll or slide on the inside of these rails. It would have to be insulated up until the contact.

Solar

The solar project is also an interest of mine. I have worked with solar panels before when I was working for ESCO Electric. We did a few residential houses which is very different from the Spartan Superway solar system because a house requires alternating current (AC). This requires an inverter that changes the direct current (DC) from the solar panels to AC. Luckily, we do not need an inverter because everything we are running is DC. In the past, Spartan Superway teams have made solar systems that move with the sun. This is a very interesting idea, but it is not very practical for miles of track to have automated solar panels. Instead, a curved, aesthetically pleasing design should be implemented. Much like the design in figure 3.

Figure 3. Curved canopy solar design

This can be achieved with flexible thin film solar panels. Thin film panels are less efficient than a crystalline panel, which may be required due to the amount of amperage that is needed. I think it would be wise to get the wayside rail running with a battery first, then implement a solar system.