Largely unheralded, a British first: the above train holding the record for the longest journey by a battery-powered train, at just over two-hundred miles. Eclipsing prior record by a country mile, despite that having been pursued in Germany (where the electric train was invented).
It has been plying its trade on a four kilometre shuttle from Paddington, and on its inaugural run it attracted any number of enthusiastic bystanders along the way tho' it set off at 05:30... which could only really happen in the UK too.
It's not an altogether new idea, such services having been pursued as early as the 1950s with trains (inset) that however used diesel to power ancillaries like heating. And that's not to be sneezed at, because 30% of the battery-power on the modern train is diverted to such services as in-seat power for the porn that passengers will be viewing on their smartphones.
The project uses refurbished carriages that were built forty years ago, which we're all familiar with in their un-refurbished state on railways in the north of England. Two takeaways however from all of this, and one being the fact that the endeavour stems from the work of one man ~ Adrian Shooter ~ who failed his Maths exam and thus his hopes of going to university.
The second is that there are more than one type of lithium ion battery, whose exact chemical composition has a bearing on safety, longevity and adaptability to a rapid charge.
You didn't know that ~ and nor did I ~ but we do now, don't we Gromit?
