Safe and Eco Friendly Train Traction System with No Rails

In this research paper, a novel train traction system is described. In this system, the vehicle is lifted like a hovercraft by air cushion and the traction is achieved by using horizontally mounted all-wheel drive. Chance of derailment is completely eliminated and wherein even in the event of failure of few traction wheel stations during run, the train remains mobile with absolute safety even at high speeds. All-wheel drive traction is powered by overhead electrification to maintain high power to weight ratio and faster acceleration. In the present invention, no rail is used. This eliminates the enormous cost of laying the complex and expensive railway tracks. Other advantages include the lack of exhaust fumes and carbon emissions at point of use especially in countries where electricity comes primarily from non-fossil sources, less noise, lower maintenance requirements of the traction units. In case, where the availability or laying the overhead electrification is an issue, the present invention has the potential to adopt alternate power sources such as petrol or diesel or gas turbine or jet engines or hybrid power sources for traction. But ecological issues may have to be compromised in such cases. The present invention has a potentially wide scope to revolutionize urban and suburban railway traction (both passengers and goods) and long distance traction. For proving the technical feasibility, a working model was developed. In this paper, the results from the working model are discussed in detail. (Indian patent and PCT application are pending).