Trucks will rush by power transmission towers

Actuality December, 2002

The main kind of transport on the Russian North is aviation and deer. It is impossible to build railroad there because railroad bed will constantly “glide” in permafrost. Asphalt simply can not withstand the arctic temperature differences, and concrete-surfaced road is so expensive, that usually concrete roads are only central streets of region centre and a runway of local aerodrome. So the academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Anatoly Junitsky suggests to develop unconventional transportation network – to lay a cable.

Electrical rope-walkers

Imagine that there is the line of anchor towers across tundra. By their form and also by their construction they resemble tower poles for aerial lines. Only cables between them are not usual ones. As Anatoly Junitsky writes in his monograph, “The highway of cable transport system (CTS) is two rail-cables which a four-wheeled high-speed car moves.” If to strain rail-cables with the force of hundreds tons, we’ll get quite rugged construction. The Ostankino TV tower (in Moscow) is the striking illustration of that. Even after the fire when one part of cables burst, and other one became looser, it did not fall.

In what way is this road better than the traditional railway? The ordinary rails need “cushion” of sand and gravel. Sometimes it is more expensive than road itself. And there is always the danger that it will “glide”. The anchor power transmission towers can be mounted in the conditions of permafrost.

Further, in the winter Russian roads are constantly snowbound and need permanent cleaning. Cable does not need that: snow simply doesn’t keep on it. It is not also necessary to guard it: only the fool one will try to get such a height. It is usual there to unscrew nuts from ordinary rails since Chekhov’s times, and in rail-cable there are no nuts.

For better safety inside each rail-cable there are some multiple-core cables. The probability of simultaneous breaking of all cables is practically vanishing. The deflection under the weight of the car, according to calculations, will make not more than 0,1%.

It means that cars can rush by strained cables at a speed to 500 km per hour! There are variants of mounting of the towers in different climatic and geographical conditions. The road can be driven even oversea, and also in tunnels driven either on the bottom or in water mass.

And now about cars

As the main designer of the project Vladimir Zharkevich said, it is easier to make the transport unit of composite materials. Aluminum or usual tin will do for that. The main thing is that hull configurations calculated and checked in wind-tunnel stand. As tests showed, wind resistance of such a car is twice less than of a racer. It can have different kinds of driving gear: electric drive, gas turbine, or usual diesel. In order the carriage may not derail, its wheels are equipped with double flanges: there is one from each side. It is supposed to produce two kinds of cars: passenger cars (carrying capacity from 500 kg under 16 tons, accommodating from 6 to 200 persons, respectively), and freight ones (under 200 tons).

Traffic control is automatic; there are neither switches, nor furcations on the road. If the motor suddenly breaks down, no harm done: the car will reach its destination being pushed by the next car. Automatic security system will help to avoid collisions. Similar systems have been working for dozens of years at the usual railroad. Boarding and deboarding of passengers will be at special stations. There will be placed switches which will make it possible to drive off cars not necessary at the moment to the special parking.

Still the cars rushing by high-voltage power lines seem to be quite bold fancy. Nevertheless, in Ozera near Moscow the first 150-metre-long experimental line of cable transport carrier has started its work. Besides, mounting of three-km line is already in the process in Kiev.