Gyrobus

From Freepedia

A Gyrobus is an electrical bus that uses flywheel energy storage and not overhead wires like a trolleybus. The name comes from the Greek language term for flywheel, gyros.

Its advantages: quiet and pollution free, gets along without tracks and can operate flexibly at changing distances. Its disadvantage is the weight, a bus which can carry 20 persons and has radius of 20 km, must carry a flywheel which weighs 3 tons. The disk, which turns in 3000 revolutions per minute, requires special attachment and security - because of the external speed of the disk is 900 km/h. Also the driving fashion of a gyrobus is not completely simple in the curves to keep the flywheel always alike tried nevertheless the situation. In last stop of the route the bus will again accelerate its flywheel with electricity and also can reuse braking energy. The attempts in the 1950s were quite hopeful, because people along the gyrobus line were glad, because they hadn't the pollution of diesel exhaust gases and no overhead lines. Progressive motorizing and the desire of flexibility of the operators caused the research to terminate prematurely.

In Switzerland the gyrobus run between the cities of Yverdon les Bains and Grandson from October 1953 and October 1960.