You don't have those nice trains with laptop power on tap?

Trains there still go picheegoof picheegoof picheegoof picheegoof picheegoof. The up side is you can give the fireman a pail of coal for your fare if you are short on cash

David, after her graduation from university, (honors in psychology, with distinction, yes she takes after me) my daughter obtained a work visa in the UK. She lives in a small village just outside London and travels by train into the city to work. Apparently she fell fast asleep on the train one morning and when she awoke she had absolutely no idea where she was.

She said, "Dad, the people there spoke completely different from anything I had heard up to that point. Finally, I asked a kind old lady, 'Am I in Scotland now?' and she laughed and helped me sort things out."

My earlier jab at your trains betrays my jealousy. Here in Canada the population is so sparse throughout most of the country operating a passenger train service between major metropolitan centres and outlying districts is a losing proposition. We are forced to drive everywhere we go and many here would be thankful for any kind of train service at all.

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I may have a solution for your battery problem though it may require a favor or 2 from your buddys, depending on your skills.

Years ago I booked a trip on The Canadian, the only passenger train in Canada that connects 2 citys. In fact, it travels from Vancouver on the west coast to Halifax on the east coast, a journey of some 6,000 Km. over 6 days. I had a Toshiba Tecra 520 and wanted to take it along to record my experiences in my journal, play music, games, etc. I knew there would be no power available so I asked a friend who is a carman with the railroad to find out what kind of power is delivered to the light sockets in the sleepers and what kind of lamp was employed. He brought me a lamp and told me it was 24 volt DC power. The lamp was the bayonet type, push in and give a bit of a turn to lock in place. Perfect!!

I got onto one of the electronics groups on Usenet and asked how I might convert the 24 VDC from the lamp socket to the 15VDC required by my Tecra. Someone emailed me a schematic plus a parts list for a small circuit complete with fast-blo fuse. I found all the components at Radio Shack, built the circuit and torture tested it on a pair of 12 volt car batteries connected in series to give 24 volts. It worked perfect and even recharged the Tecra's battery.

Next I mounted the circuit inside a plastic box I found at the local electronic component store. I broke the glass off the lamp, chipped out the ceramic inside the brass base to expose the 2 poles and soldered a 6 foot length of 2 conductor cable to the 2 poles in the brass base. I filled the cavity in the base with epoxy and planted a short, stout piece of plastic into the epoxy before it set. That plastic would be a handle to twist the base into place inside the lamp socket. The epoxy prevents the wires from being torn off and secures the handle. The handle, of course, extended no further than the glass on the unmodified lamp base else it would not fit into the light fixture.

The other end of the cable I soldered to the inputs of the converter circuit. I soldered a second cable to the outputs of the converter. The other end of that cable got a connector that matched the input on the Tecra. I filled the connector with epoxy, again to prevent the wires from breaking off the solder terminals due to repeated flexing of the cable.

Total cost was under $25

I packed a few small screwdrivers and a snipper (side cutter) with me to remove the lens from the lamp on the train, snip off a tiny piece of plastic from the lens edge for the cable to route outside the lamp and replace the lens to avoid detection.

It worked perfectly!! None of the other passengers could figure out how my laptop could run for so long and of course I never revealed my little secret. I told them the Tecras were marvelous laptops, the only way to go. I think the train conductor figured it out but I bought his cooperation with the odd tot from my rum flask.

I was thinking you might take a voltmeter onto the train, read the voltage inside the lamp socket and build a similar device to the one I built. Depending on the voltage available and the voltage requirements of your laptop it might be a very simple and inexpensive.

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Hi to the 2 D's from a third

The train I usually go on has just one tantalising 13Amp Socket (UK Style) marked "not for passenger use" just by the door. I think they use it to connect a Vacuum Cleaner to in the station .

Didactylos which train company are you traveling with?



You're not with Mr Branson are you?


Knowing my luck I'd probably bring the train to a halt if I tried it.

So if you see an item on the news about train halted by insane number cruncher

That'll be me

Must go and get some ZzzZz's

Night all
Dave