Technology Harvests Energy from Railroad Train Vibrations

Stony Brook University engineers have won a national award. The award was entitled" Energy Harvesting" at the Energy Harvesting and Storage USA 2012 conference.

The group researched process and equipment to create an energy harvester that converts the irregular, oscillatory motion of that trains make as they travel over rail track. The system converts the vibrations into regular, unidirectional motion, in the same way that an electric voltage rectifier converts AC voltage into DC.


Top savings from the installation and use of the new invention...according to the researchers...,

save more than $10 million in trackside power supply costs for railroads in New York State alone.

along with a reduction of 3000 tons per year of CO2

and a half million dollars of electricity savings.

"With the MMR design, the technology advances the traditional energy harvesting, including directly generating high-quality DC power without an electrical rectifier in the vibration environment; enabling an electrical generator to rotate in one direction with relative steady speed in a more efficient speed region; and changing the negative influence of motion inertia into positive, thus reducing the mechanical stress and increasing system reliability," he said. "Such a design not only avoids the challenges of friction and impact induced by oscillation motion, but also enables us to make full use of the pulse-like features of track vibration to harvest more energy."says Professor Zuo

Here's the abstract of the presented paper. The blog will finish reading the paper and update this post with images and extracts.

ABSTRACT

Anelectromagnetic energy harvester is designed to harness the vibrational power from railroad track deflections due to passing trains. Whereas typical existing vibration energy harvester technologies are built for low power applications of milliwatts range, the proposed harvester will be designed for higher power applications for major track-side equipment such as warning signals, switches, and health monitoring sensors, which typically require a power supply of 10 Watts or more. To achieve this goal, we implement a new patent pending motion conversion mechanism which converts irregular pulse-like bidirectional linear vibration into regulated unidirectional rotational motion. Features of the motion mechanism include bidirectional to unidirectional conversion and flywheel speed regulation, with advantages of improved reliability, efficiency, and quality of output power. It also allows production of DC power directly from bidirectional vibration without electronic diodes. Preliminary harvester prototype testing results illustrate the features and benefits of the proposed motion mechanism, showing reduction of continual system loading, regulation of generator speed, and capability for continuous DC power generation.

Junctioneer.ca

Location:Quebec Ave,Toronto,Canada

CPR Canadian Holiday Train will be in the Junction Saturday, December 01, 2012

 



 

The Canadian Holiday Train will be in the Junction

Saturday, December 01, 2012

5:30 p.m., 750 Runnymede Rd,

in front of CP Lambton yard office,

Entertainers on the Canadian train include Doc Walker, Miss Emily, and theBrothers Dube.

 

 

Junction Rd / Weston Rd shutdown to last for months more.

The west Toronto Diamond separation projection will keep the Junction Rd / Weston Rd roadway shutdown to last for months more.

This section of the airport rail link involves the construction of a major underpass where one railroad track will pass over another.

Historically the trains traveled over trackage that crossed each other at a level crossing, requiring one train to stop while another passed.

All this construction will remove this rail travel limitation.


The congestion this construction causes it appears to be a major headache for the local police who have to come down to southern part of their division by Keele St only.


The reopening of the Junction Rd / Weston Rd way will allow the police a much quicker travel way into the south end of their division.


So what's the work at the Junction Rd / Weston Rd diamond separate now.

Here are a number of photographs of the site currently. The large round objects are the concrete filled steel tubes that will
form the barrier wall as the dig out the ground to form the underpass.








The following images are of sound deadening shrouds used during the driving in of the steel piles.













The blog intends to put a page of all the image being sent in once the uploading issue presently troubling the blog is fixed.

West Toronto Diamond project reaches Black Creek Drive

Black Creek Drive at its foot has been reduced to one lane as work proceeds on the rail bridgework overhead.

This slows down the traffic turn left on to Old Weston Rd. quite a bit.

A this has to do with the West Toronto part of the airport link, hopefully we will to see them build a new bridge section.

Up til now the the Weston Rd. area up in the Mount Dennis area has all the exciting stuff on the public highway.

Please keep me in the Junction dear CPR railway

Recently the yellow caboose that stood regularly just behind George Bell Arena, has been traversing the rail tracks around the Junction.

Worryingly does this indicate that the CPR cannot retain a place to store it, hopefully not it would surely be missed.

Or is the dreamy reality that the railroad men and women just love having a roar moving it around remembering the days when trains had cabooses.

The caboose was visible at the back of Vine parkette Thursday.

West Toronto Diamond – Overnight Work Temporary Change in Working Hour

 

 

 

 

 

 

CPR maintenance of way train in west Toronto yard north of Junction

CPR

Interesting talk for Junction folk

 

 

Text of Image

Join us on Thursday, April 28th as we launch our 2011 Heritage Toronto Walks season with an illustrated lecture on the history of Toronto's railways, hosted by Derek Boles. Our 2011 Spring walk brochures will be available for pick up as well!

How the Railways Shaped Toronto
Illustrated Lecture

 

On May 16, 1853 the first passenger train steamed out of Toronto from a wooden depot that was located just east of present-day Union Station. Over the next century, the railways had a profound impact on the geography of Toronto and helped transform the city into the commercial centre of Canada. See rare images and animations that illustrate how the railways formed and altered Toronto's built and natural landscape over the last century and a half. And discover the role that St. Lawrence Hall played in railway history!

DATE: Thursday, April 28th at 7:00pm

SPEAKER: Derek Boles, Toronto Railway Historical Association,
Author of Toronto's Railway Heritage

LOCATION: St. Lawrence Hall
157 King Street East (at Jarvis), 3rd Floor - Great Hall

 

Heritage Toronto

Heritage Toronto Events Calendar

The Village by High Park, Topping off ceremony

Recently the blog attended the topping off ceremony for the  The Village by High Park  condominium project, an event to celebrate both buildings reaching their final height by the placing of the last major structural concrete.

In these images you see the  men and woman who are building the enjoying  a meal to celebrate all of their excellent work.

Transit, Politics blog on Transit, Politics talks about the Junction and Go Transit

outtake...

GO was so preoccupied with opposition in Weston that it failed to take account of the quickly growing population around the rail corridor south of West Toronto Junction.  Aside from the question of daily train movements, GO further alienated residents with a proposal for the Strachan Avenue grade separation that would have created a major barrier within the new King West / Liberty Village community.  This matter was not resolved until intervention by Metrolinx and a compromise solution acceptable to the City of Toronto was adopted.

GO runs popular services, and as a provincial agency it is used to getting more or less what it wants.  Public participation and accommodation have not been GO’s strong suits.

Full article

Go Transit - Electrification Study Update Meeting – Georgetown Corridor

[caption id="attachment_6777" align="alignright" width="500" caption="Train passing over an area of the diamond project where the overpass will be."][/caption]

The update meeting will be held Thursday, May 27^th 2010 from 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. at the Lithuanian House, 1573 Bloor Street West. The purpose of the meeting is to provide an update on the Electrification Study progress to date.  The meeting format will consist of a presentation by the Electrification Study Team, followed by an opportunity for participants to ask questions and offer feedback on the work completed to date.



[caption id="attachment_6778" align="alignright" width="500" caption="The construction and the train"][/caption]

Metrolinx drops West Diamond appeal

The Toronto Star is reporting....

In a major victory for Toronto’s Junction community, Metrolinx has agreed to drop its appeal of a decision that limits the amount of noise it can make in the west-end neighborhood.

In December, the CTA ordered GO to limit work hours and use quieter methods at the rail crossing. GO had already implemented quieter technology and shrouds over the pile drivers to try to reduce the noise.

About 85 per cent of the 2,400 piles required have been completed, Thomas said. But the project, which was to have been finished last year, now won’t be done until the end of this year.

link to full story at TS

Thanks to blog reader Helen for bringing to the blogs attention

The Village by High Park, options for cars

link to site

The Village by High Park to have the Options for Homes Car service?

Wondering?

The Junction Rising

The Village by High Park condo is rising rapidly over the Junction and we can now see it peeking over the surrounding buildings from St. Clair to Glenlake.

Although the west tower has 9 floors to go we can get a sense of how massive this project of over 600 units really is.  The West tower is at approximately the 14th floor of 23 and the East tower has almost topped out.

Post submitted by Martin L co-chair of the Junction Residents Association

Nordheimer Piano & Music Co history article with exclusive image

The blog asked David Wencer to write  an article about the Nordheimer Piano & Music Co. As on the blogs tour of the The Village by High Park project provided by Deltera’s senior site superintendent Sean McCaffrey - seeing the artifacts of his families Nordheimer Piano factory greatly interests this author in learning more about the factory. Sean McCaffrey is a direct descendant of Samuel Nordheimer the owner of the Nordheimer Piano factory pictured

follows... Sean's image with his kind permission for it to used here, and David's article.

[caption id="attachment_6242" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="This portrait used to hang in his Glen Edyth estate at Davenport and Spadina. Provided for use in this post by Sean McCaffrey."][/caption]

Nordheimer Piano & Music Co., began in Kingston, Ontario, when brothers Abraham and Samuel Nordheimer opened a piano dealership in 1842. A few years later they moved to Toronto, and quickly became one of the Dominion’s top dealers of sheet music world-class pianos. Starting in 1858, Nordheimer was Canada’s official seller of Steinway pianos, and the two remained associated with each into the 20^th Century.

The company thrived, and in the late 1880s Nordheimer began manufacturing their own pianos, first as part of a group project known as the Lansdowne Piano Company, and by 1890, under the Nordheimer name itself.

In early 1904 Nordheimer opened a state-of-the-art, five-storey factory in what was then the town of Toronto Junction, near what is now the northeast corner of Indian Grove and Hook Avenue. This new building was made of white brick, and featured 60,000 square feet of floorspace, a lumber yard, two large elevator shafts, and a fancy new sprinkler system. The facilities enabled Nordheimer to produce pianos which had a very high reputation; advertising for the company mentions that "the Nordheimer Company’s ideal and energy is concentrated on the forces necessary to accomplish - regardless of cost - the product of the highest class and best grade only."

An advertisement in a 1904 edition of the Toronto Globe touts the Junction factory’s railroad sidings "which, being used in connection with the different railway lines running through Toronto Junction give the Nordheimer Company the best facilities for shipping their manufactured products to every part of the Dominion." From this facility Nordheimer was not only able to ship goods across Canada, but also to send finished pianos to their warerooms and recital hall in downtown Toronto, located at 15 King Street East.

By the early 20^th Century, Nordheimer claimed to be the oldest piano and music establishment in the American continent. The company and the owners had certainly grown to be amongst Canada’s elite; Samuel had been President of the Federal Bank of Canada, President of the Toronto Philharmonic Society, and served the German Consul for Ontario. Abraham’s son Albert succeeded Samuel as head of the company; he himself served as the Dutch Consul-General for Canada.

Nordheimer officially ceased to be an independent company at the end of 1927, when Albert retired. Their Junction factory remained in use, however, manufacturing pianos under the Nordheimer name for Heintzman and Co., another prominent Toronto-based piano manufacturer. Sources disagree as to when Heintzman ceased the Nordheimer line, with the latest date given being 1960. It is believed that a total of 27,846 Nordheimer pianos were produced, the bulk of them at the Junction factory.

post text by David Wencer

The Village by High Park, the electrical rooms - photo post

Well this is just as exciting to this author as all the other photos from the blogs tour of the Village by High Park development.  In the photos below you are inside the election control and distribution rooms. These rooms are placed at the north west corner of the development at the south east corner of the Keele St underpass (subway).

[caption id="attachment_6082" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Two cases to the right (at rear) are Toronto Hydro control switches"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6083" align="aligncenter" width="281" caption="inside one of the step-down transformers"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6084" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Distribution to units area"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6085" align="aligncenter" width="281" caption="Individual control switches"][/caption]

The Village by High Park, Retail what if?

[caption id="attachment_6078" align="aligncenter" width="473" caption="Looking out of the/one of the retail spaces in the building"][/caption]

It's  the most obvious location for what type of  retail operation? -  a restaurant, a clothes cleaner, a convenience store, a flower store, a dollar store, a hobby store or art store.  But someone or some corporate entity probably is  planning on making a go the ground-floor space at the The Village by High Park, aka the old Canadian Tire Keele St site. what will/should it be?

As you may know, this tower is a condominium hybrid mix of affordable units and some retail  built by Deltera Construction for the Options for Homes company. For the moment the space is undivided to offer flexibility with the leasing opportunities.

Is this where the chains stores such as Starbucks will place themselves in the Junction?

Below is an image of a similar type and size retail operation at the bottom of a condo development - gives you an idea of what retail along this stretch will look like.

The Village by High Park, firefighters elevator system

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkTN88ANcUg

In this video Sean McCaffrey the senior site superintendent for Deltera speaks detailing the features of parts of the firefighters elevator system in the condominium development.



The above image shows the firefighters elevator system concrete forming  on one floor.

The Village by High Park, Paris ave's in The Junction

above looking out of the south west towards Keele St just south of Vine Ave

[caption id="attachment_5920" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Keele St Sidewalk"][/caption]

Directly above this text is an image of the new expanding sidewalk area that is being created by the The Village by High Park development, just look how much added space will add the walk space, - remember the city sidewalk in still on the other side of  hoarding.

..a stop and talk sidewalk this will be - looking back over many images of area from the past indicates to this author that never before has the sidewalk area been as walkable as it will be now.

Federal court denies GO/Metrolinx the ability to bypass a federal CTA decision

Toronto Star article

Court upholds order for GO to halt heavy hammer use - thestar.com Court upholds order for GO to halt heavy hammer use: Ruling is a victory for residents of the West Toronto Diamond..

February 4, 2010

DiNovo Congratulates Local Residents over Pile-driving Victory

Parkdale-High Park—NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo is sending her heartfelt congratulations to the citizens of the West Toronto Diamond in Toronto’s historic Junction neighborhood.

Last night, the federal court denied GO/Metrolinx the ability to bypass a federal CTA decision stating that Metrolinx’s pile-driving project was causing undue harm to residents of the West Toronto Diamond.

“This is a clear victory for the West Diamond citizens,” said DiNovo.

“The federal court has stated clearly that Metrolinx must listen to the legitimate demands of citizens. Metrolinx has lost their game of using tax dollars to go after tax payers," added DiNovo.

DiNovo is now calling on GO/Metrolinx and Minister of Transportation Kathleen Wynne to stop the noise up the line and to settle damage claims without wasting more tax dollars.

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Media Inquiries: Charles Smith (647) 405-1425