[dcb]

you said a train was a hybrid, but in order to be a hybrid train it needs batteries and a controller, as the link clearly demonstrates. Please be a decent chap and correct that mistake before we plod along too much further.

If you have an electric motor without a battery then you don't have an electric propulsion system. If it needs a gas engine to run then it isn't an "electric propulsion system".

My car has a starter and the clutch interlock is disabled( I can actually drive a few blocks on the starter only) I don't go calling it a hybrid vehicle, especially since all that does is water down the term hybrid. Your definition is mislead and pretty much meaningless for efficiency discussions.

And yes the series train is nearly identical to a torque converter except that an engine runs a generator which powers a motor, instead of an engine running a pump that powers a turbine. And I am not about to call cars with torque converters "hybrid vehicles", in the year 2011.