Bulk Battery Charger (aka Bad Boy)

I want to make a battery charger to bulk charge a bank of 240 volt flooded ni-cads. I want to charge at a max of 50 amps using a bridge rectifier and capacitors only, and maybe a switch to control the current by introducing a resistor into the circuit.

1. What kind of diode is rated for this voltage/amperage? I am guessing the DC voltage will basically be 240 times 1.4, or around 335.
2. What size capacitor? I was thinking 2000uF. Maybe the capacitor is not that important since I am only charging batteries.
3. What size and value resistors if I wanted to limit the current to 10A, 25A, or 40A?
4. Is there any simple way to lower the output voltage at the required amperage?

Any ideas would be helpful.

For a start you need to enter your location in your profile, and explain where you're going to get 240V at 50A from?. You don't need a capacitor though to charge batteries.

You need a three phase supply for that sort of current, forget about using single phase.

What do these batteries power?

A small car?