Sky rail transport

[alan2here]

I just wondered. Get two locations that are a fair distance apart but where there is also a fair height differance between them. For example cliffs on the south of england to a beach in France.

 

Create a system similar to that of cable carts or ski lifts but not powered by anything, so it is like a piece of wire connected at both ends to a large pulley and in a loop. Containers that people could stand in would be placed at intervals around the loop. One end is higher and there are heavy carts around the loop but nothing would move anywhere for now.

 

Water could then inexpensively be added to the top end, ether at a type of movement cart or just in an area in the carts that carry the people, the water would ether come from a nearby natural reserve or from a tap. Gravity would then pull that side down, as the next cart passes the top it can also be filled etc... At the bottom the cars can be emptied.

 

Great distances could then be traveled at great speed with little environmental impact.

[Klaynos]

http://www.cliffrailwaylynton.co.uk/howitworks.html

 

Like this?

[alan2here]

Yes. That is along the ground but still awesome. Is what I was getting at. Nature does all the hard work of getting the water to the top for you. This should be used more.

[Klaynos]

The problem I see with it is the quantities of water you need at the top, especially in the summer if you can't collect it all by rainfall...

[honestdude14]

At some point, this system would need energy to pump more water up there.Consider the amount of water emptied at the bottom vs. amount of rainfall in that region.

[Klaynos]

At some point, this system would need energy to pump more water up there.Consider the amount of water emptied at the bottom vs. amount of rainfall in that region.

 

You could pipe it from higher altitude reservoirs.... *snigger*

[Edtharan]

You could pipe it from higher altitude reservoirs.... *snigger*

Something like a natural lake?

 

Actually, using a lake as a reservoir and using natural rain fall as your pump could make this quite environmentally friendly (depending on how much water you actually use). Pumping the water up yourself would, of course, be a waste of energy (although if you used wind turbines...).

[honestdude14]

However guys,might i remind you that people do it all the time. It seems like a waste of energy, but.. look for yourself.Wiki.

[Klaynos]

Something like a natural lake?

 

Actually, using a lake as a reservoir and using natural rain fall as your pump could make this quite environmentally friendly (depending on how much water you actually use). Pumping the water up yourself would, of course, be a waste of energy (although if you used wind turbines...).

 

That's what I was thinking....

 

However guys,might i remind you that people do it all the time. It seems like a waste of energy, but.. look for yourself.Wiki.

 

I know, it still makes an energy loss though, but for something like hydroeletricity it's far far better than either letting the energy go to waste or using batteries.

[Psycho]

Well in his hypothetical idea, from one side of the English channel to the other you could just use sea water, I could see it working if there was a reasonable height differences, however I can't see it being that fast also I would think it would be closed for a lot of the year due to adverse weather conditions.

 

I wouldn't really want to be stuck on the middle of it when the wind picked up that is for sure.

[alan2here]

Nice English channel idea. Zip wires pick up a lot of speed. A bit of energy in lifting the water from the the see as opposed to none from a lake or river but it is still not that much. Could be quite good fun in stormy weather. How are you going to get stuck in the middle?

[Klaynos]

How do you get the sea water to the top of the cliffs?

[DJBruce]

You would have to find a way to bring water to the top of a cliff or if you real did not want to do that you could try and make something that captured rain water but that would be impartical.

 

Here's an idea I had I have no idea if it will work but what if you focused the suns light on the ocean causing the water to evaporate and once it evaporates you could collect the vapor and condense it. I doubt it could be done on a large scale but if it could it would use no other energy other than the sunlight.

[Sisyphus]

Here's an idea I had I have no idea if it will work but what if you focused the suns light on the ocean causing the water to evaporate and once it evaporates you could collect the vapor and condense it. I doubt it could be done on a large scale but if it could it would use no other energy other than the sunlight.

 

That's how water gets in lakes and rivers in the first place. Of course, the sunlight collecting surface area is the entire surface of the world's oceans...

[Klaynos]

You would have to find a way to bring water to the top of a cliff or if you real did not want to do that you could try and make something that captured rain water but that would be impartical.

 

Here's an idea I had I have no idea if it will work but what if you focused the suns light on the ocean causing the water to evaporate and once it evaporates you could collect the vapor and condense it. I doubt it could be done on a large scale but if it could it would use no other energy other than the sunlight.

 

What would be even better is if you could get this water to fall onto the ground and then form some kind of flowing stream which you could then collect....

 

oh...

[alan2here]

This is not a way of generating electricity. It's just a way of transport that is powered by the sun brining the water to higher placer or in the ocean idea it actually requires some energy to run but is still very efficient.