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The other downside of electric drive is that traditionally it wasn't very efficient - there's a reason you don't have it in your car!

ZF used to actually make a rail version of the AS-Tronic automated manual (used on trucks and buses) though I think the only buyer was the Danish national rail operator which converted their IC3 DMUs from conventional automatic boxes.

Bunker oil, in some cases. It's something like the dregs left when you refine oil. It's a viscous oil that has to be heated to get it into an engine. Some ships have flex fuel engines which use diesel where regulations apply and bunker oil out at sea.

I think they're more like EVs with a range extending engine. A bit of semantics I suppose but they have a decent electric-only range and are intended to drive as EVs until the battery runs down whereas PHEVs have a shorter electric range and frequently start the engine. Also, PHEVs usually drive...

Strictly speaking, the Voith box is a three speed unit with two gears - first speed involves a torque converter driving low gear while second speed uses a fluid coupling to drive the same gear with less slip. It drains all the couplings when power is cut so it'll coast in neutral - it doesn't...

Haven't found any, but there's a training film of how to drive a predecessor with SCG boxes here:

I'm told that the problem was that the ship was built too short and the prefabricated cabins wouldn't fit!

They used to be though, as diesel electric DMUs were very much a thing once until Voith hydrodynamic gearboxes were introduced. DE fell out of favour for the same reasons as you don't have it in your car - it's heavy, expensive and inefficient. Having so said more modern AC equipment is rather...

The situation with respect to children born in Ireland of non-national parents was changed by constitutional referendum some time ago. The current position is here: http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/citizenship-by-birth-descent

Not as of right, no. You have to apply for naturalisation, although in the event of having a spouse who is a citizen the residence requirements are relaxed somewhat. http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_citizenship/becoming_an_irish_citizen_through_marriage.html

It may, but it's complicated. If you have an Irish born parent or grandparent (citizenship isn't enough) you qualify for citizenship as of right. If you have an Irish born great grandparent as in your case: To become an Irish citizen, your great-grandparent's grandchild (ie your parent) who is...

I think the joke may have rather passed over you!

Just send a boat out to some part of the old Empire. Call it, oh I don't know, the Windrush or something?

At the risk of being pedantic....they use a conventional ZF automatic box (a mechanical box in rail talk) with a torque converter. The only genuinely mechanical transmission I can think of in recent times is the ZF automated manual with which some Danish DMUs were re equipped with in the 2000s...

Heat. If the motors aren't turning they heat up. Same thing happens with a torque converter (or a clutch, come to that).

Just what I would have thought. The forthcoming Class 195 has ZF automatic gearboxes (mechanical transmission in rail parlance) and if electric drive was more efficient surely it would have been used. Also, you'd have it in your car/bus/truck.

If electric drive is that good why have DMUs tended to move away from it to hydrodynamic and latterly "mechanical" (actually bus type automatic gearbox) drive? Also except in the context of hybridisation you never see it in a road vehicle.

It's just the same stop/start you get on cars. The driver stops for more than a few seconds. The engine stops. He or she releases the brake and it starts again. On a manual vehicle you'd have to engage neutral and release the clutch, with restart happening when you press the clutch again, but on...

I think it's a newer model but the same basic idea, it's a conventional car type automatic box. Interestingly one flaw with previous implementations of this gearbox for rail use is that the locking torque converter means that the train doesn't coast like a traditional hydrodynamic transmissioned...

I suppose they'll include it in the new contactless card which you'll then present at the museums etc.