From that early spark of inspiration has come the Pavegen tiles, 5cm-thick units which have already been fitted in railway stations, universities, schools and offices to harness the energy from footfall which is then stored in a battery and can be used within a 200-metre radius to power street lights or charge mobile phones, among other uses.
Press-fitted railway axles and wheels are subjected to fretting fatigue loading with a potential hazard of crack initiation in press fits.
They are fitted with small railway wheels just outside of the road tyres, which can be lowered when working in railway mode, and ensure that the road wheels run along the top of the rails.
However, and uniquely for this Expedition only, the ships were fitted with converted railway locomotive engines for auxiliary propulsion which required an estimated one tonne of fresh water per hour when steaming.
During the experiments, the pantographs were only used on the reserve track section which at the time was fitted with a railway like caternary overhead system rather than the traditional tramway style overhead used on the rest of the system.
Mrs Andersen said that nothing less than state of the art equipment should be fitted on the railways.
Each gallery was fitted with a gauge railway track.
By 2001, the railway had fitted its entire passenger fleet with the necessary equipment, operated by air brake pumps mounted on the locomotives.
The railway fits neatly into the vision of Xi Jinping, China's president, who has championed the New Silk Road as an alternative to American-controlled sea-lanes.
Passenger railway cars are fitted with steel or resin tanks in which the total volume of water is variable depending on the type of car (ranging from 200 to 1,800 litres).
To comply with local railway regulations, it was fitted with: a cowcatcher; bell; buckeye couplings; American-style whistle; air brakes; and high-intensity headlamp.
