Railway Track & Structures - September 2007 - (Page 3) ON TRACK Vol. 103, No. 9 USPS # 860-560 ISSN # 00339016 EDITORIAL OFFICES 20 South Clark Street, Suite 2450 Chicago, Ill. 60603 Telephone (312) 683-0130 Fax (312) 683-0131 Website www.rtands.com Boosting energy George S. Sokulski/Associate Publisher Tom Judge/Editor, tjudge@sbpubchicago.com Wanda Welty/Managing Editor Mischa Wanek-Libman/Assistant Editor, mischa@sbpub-chicago.com Susan Taylor/Editorial Assistant E CORPORATE OFFICES 345 Hudson Street New York, N.Y. 10014 Telephone (212) 620-7200 Fax (212) 633-1165 Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr./ President and Chairman Robert P. DeMarco/Publisher Mary Conyers-Brown/Production Director Barbara DiGirolamo/Production Manager Tom Leader/Circulation Director Jane Poterala/Conference Director Robert G. Lewis/Director of Special Projects For reprint information, contact: PARS International Corp. 212-221-9595; Fax 212-221-9195 RT&S, Railway Track and Structures is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corp., 345 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y. 10014. ISSN: 0033-8916. Canada Post Cust.#7204564; Agreement #41094515. Bleuchip Int'l, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Periodical Class postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Subscription price to railroad employees only in U.S. possessions, Canada and Mexico, Print or Digital version: $16 one year; $30 two years (all others $39.50 one year; $73 two years). All other countries, $68 one year ($168 for air mail); $120 two years ($320 for air mail). Both Print and Digital versions: $24 one year; $45 two years (all others $60 one year; $110 two years). All other countries, $102 one year ($202 for air mail); $180 two years ($380 for air mail). Single copies $8.50. Track Buyer’s Guide $21. All rates are payable in advance. The publisher reserves the right to increase subscription rates without notice. Call toll-free 1-800-895-4389 (or 402-346-4740) Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Central Time to place an order. Copyright 2007. Customer Service: Address all correspondence to: Subscription Department, RT&S, P.O. Box 10, Omaha, NE 68101-0010. Changes of address should reach us three weeks in advance of the next issue date. Send old address with new, enclosing, if possible, your address label. The Post Office will not forward copies unless you provide extra postage. Duplicate copies cannot be sent. POSTMASTER: Send change of address forms to RT&S, Railway Track and Structures, P.O. Box 10, Omaha, NE 68101-0010. nergy is a subject that seems to be on everybody’s mind these days, especially when watching the gas pump’s dials spin like those on a slot machine when we go in to fill the tank. I’ve read about hybrid cars, debated the value of ethanol, watched enormous windmills as they converted wind to electric power, read about new battery technology that will give us electric cars and electric locomotives and researched various methods to clean up the emissions from burning coal. But there are some ideas that appear off-the-wall taking shape out there, moving from wild-eyed fantasy to reality. This past summer, as I roamed the hallowed halls of Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry, my eyes really popped open when I saw an exhibit titled “Poop to Power.” According to the information supplied in this exhibit, farmers can store the, um, afterproduct of livestock and burn the methane gas generated to produce enough power for the farm. That may seem like a bad joke to some, but ideas like this that can provide energy independence, even on a small scale, are not funny. And it’s a sustainable energy source. We certainly won’t be running out of it as we are with various fossil fuels. Another energy story that caught my eye recently had to do with railroad commuters. I grant that sometimes these great hordes of people going and coming do bear a strong resemblance to herds of cattle, but this proposal has nothing to do with waste. I read that a couple of young men from MIT’s School of Architecture came up with an idea called a Crowd Farm, which would harness the energy of humans moving around in urban settings such as commuter train stations or concert venues or sports arenas. For example, in a train station a responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps could be installed beneath the station’s main lobby. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current. Right now, according to calculations, a single human step could power two 60W light bulbs for one flickering second. On a larger scale, mathematicians and physicists calculate that 28,527 steps could power a moving train for one second. That’s not a whole lot, but it’s a beginning, or, perhaps, a first step. This isn’t the first piezoelectric surface, but it has the potential to encourage people to activate spaces with their movement. Hmm, maybe that could also help folks with the current problem of being overweight that health care professionals are always talking about. Will either of these methods ever make a dent in our humongous energy needs? I have no idea. However, I do know that it’s going to take a whole different kind of thinking in order to solve the problem of sustainable energy sources. If nothing else, these ideas certainly qualify as different. Tom Judge, Editor A SIMMONS-BOARDMAN RAIL GROUP PUBLICATION www.rtands.com Railway Track & Structures September 2007 3 http://www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com
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