Nambour Tram: ‘It’s going to be better than TNTCo expected’
Rock on! The TramFest is back ...
The Nambour Tramway Company (TNTCo), is running a free, Christmas Tramfest event this Saturday December 3, with great bands from 4pm til late!
Tramfest used to be held in Howard Street but has moved to the new TNTCo Western Terminus in Mill Street.
Follow the heritage tracks to great food, excellent live music with three bands, kicking off with local group Lazy Guns, pictured.
Lazy Guns is a family band and includes, from left, Dad Richard Smith, lead singer Jack, Sam on bass and Ryan, drums. Organiser Mark Higgins from Shake It Up Music is holding the poster. “We play 2000s Rock n Roll,” said Jack. “Kind of like the Von Trapp family meets Jet.
“We’re looking forward to coming out and rocking the hinterland and playing some good honest rock music from 4pm to 5pm. We’re going to melt some hinterland faces!”
The Nambour Tramway Company (TNTCo), is running a free, Christmas Tramfest event on December 3, from 4pm until late!
The venue for Tramfest has changed from Howard Street to the new TNTCo Western Terminus in Mill Street.
Just follow the heritage tracks to great food, excellent live music with three bands, and Santa is popping in to give a small, free gift to the kids.
This is the Community’s ideal opportunity to speak directly with TNTCo Board Members and get all the latest news and information regarding Nambour’s long awaited ‘Tram’ and to see first hand, their new Western Terminus.
“Come one, come all and demonstrate your support for the Nambour Tram, while having a cracker of a family night out,” Mr Rogerson said.
Tramfest is generously sponsored by SC Council and the BOQ, Nambour Branch.
From left, Covey Associates’ Mechanical Engineer Stephen Braiden, Designer /Facilitator Russell Anderson, TNTCo Chairman Greg Rogerson and ONRSR Tech representatives Danielle McFarlane, Sohanjit Kochhar and Michael Howard at the recent inspection.
“When is the Tram coming?” TNTCo Chairman Greg Rogerson can’t tell us how often he and his fellow TNTCo Board Directors have been asked that question.
And now he’s more than a little relieved to say that after 12 arduous years, Nambour’s Tram is gaining traction on the build.
“We’ve got the bogeys (the four-axle rolling supports that the tram chassis and superstructure are mounted on) nearing sign off,” Mr Rogerson said.
This follows the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator’s (ONRSR’s) first Inspection of the tram’s bogey design and documentation on November 16.
Rolling stock specialists from Brisbane and Sydney spent four hours inspecting the design, general engineering, technical drawings and the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the bogeys. The work had been prepared by TNTCo’s Consulting Engineer Stephen Braiden from Covey Associates.
“Everyone from TNTCo’s perspective were mentally drained, but overwhelmed with pride and satisfaction knowing the bogey build start date is now only a few weeks and a couple of upgraded documents away,” said Mr Rogerson.
The bogey frame material of 40mm thickness will be laser cut by BHP Steel and transported to specialised rail and rolling stock manufacturer Bradken, based in Innisfail.
While the actual manufacture of the tram hasn’t commenced yet, pending ONRSR endorsement, two 11KW, 48 volt AC motors and two SEW transmissions have been purchased.
Additional equipment including a host of horns, air conditioners and artistic equipment such as lighting and electrical equipment, has also been purchased.
The Tram’s bespoke timber bench seating has also been cut. “While adhering to ONRSR’s strict engineering and safety requirements, Russell Anderson and TNTCo’s Consulting Mechanical Engineer, Stephen Braiden, have been extremely busy behind the scene, ensuring a safe, quality tram that should be operational with commissioning work on the actual tracks, starting around Christmas 2023,” said Mr Rogerson.
A key question for TNTCo has been what form of electrical storage devices would ultimately power the tram?
Various forms of batteries were investigated, including conventional, lead acid batteries and lead acid gel batteries, right through to lithium-ion and lithium iron phosphate batteries.
“The very best available lithium iron phosphate pouch batteries, while having a much better cycle life of approximately 7000 cycles, compared with lead acid gel life cycles of somewhere between 3000 to 5000 cycles, still necessitated our most meticulous investigation due to the fact that some forms of lithium-based batteries come with an inherent safety risk if exposed to fire,” said Mr Rogerson. “You don’t have to Google too hard to discover some story or actual video footage of what’s referred to as ‘thermal runaway reaction’.”
Hence their investigations led them to opt for ‘supercapacitor’ technology.
“Pure supercapacitors act in much the same way as any conventional or lithium based battery. They store electricity and have great lifecycle, quoted at 1 million cycles, but they don’t have anywhere near the storage ‘capacity’ or ‘density’ of either the lead acid or lithium batteries”
“Absolute latest technology in supercapacitors is to ‘dope’ the base film with a very small amount of lithium, thus enhancing and multiplying the electrical storage capacity approximately 60 times that of base, pure supercapacitors.
“But the downside of using these ‘super’, supercapacitors is that their lifecycle ability is approximately halved to 500,000 cycles. That’s still excellent, compared with the life cycles of either conventional or lithium based battery storage and the great thing about these supercapacitors is they are extremely safe.”
TNTCo’s intention is to use both pure supercapacitors and ‘super’, supercapacitors in parallel for their Nambour Tram.
This would necessitate more frequent charging of the supercapacitors, at every second or third trip end, but it would also mean that the initial lot of supercapacitors would last for at least 30 years, thereby giving Nambour an extremely efficient, safe Tram, that will ultimately stand the test of time.