Rail roads and their tracks.

[MossRoad]

Has to go up the other side....lol

Yes. But a diesel/electric loco burns fuel all the way up and coasts down using the regenerative braking to help slow it down. A lot of that energy is wasted as heat.

Just like an EV car, the batteries on an EV loco could be recharged with that excess energy, recouping a lot of the energy that was spent getting that load up the hill. Diesel/electrics cannot capture that lost energy.

 

[Hay Dude]

Think of the regenerative braking a mile-plus long freight train would have going down a good grade.

I like it. Great use of batteries and their weight. Regenerative braking could also come through the car brakes, not just the loco.

 

[ArlyA]

I like it. Great use of batteries and their weight. Regenerative braking could also come through the car brakes, not just the loco.

The only brakes on cars is friction, and that's not going to change. If a line was electrified, the down hill trains would be pushing its locomotives, generating power and that goes back into the line with minimal losses. I was told that one loaded train could pull two empty trains up that same hill. Batteries waste power while be charged or sitting idle. How efficient are they today?

 

[MossRoad]

It's all a good discussion for the bean counters.

 

[ArlyA]

Oh gosh,,,, Youtub pointed to me this film made about the big boy that I'd not seen before. It compares its size and HP to all other steam engines in the world and shows a bunch of clips of this class still working in the 60's. What a wonderful film!

 

[BravoXray]

Has anyone seen that CP and KCS are intending to merge?
If it goes through, they will have coverage from the west to the east coast of Canada, through the middle of the US and to southern Mexico. This gives them access to traffic lanes and ports that no other railroad can match.

 

[the old grind]

Isn't that partly to compete with another merger to the West that spans all three countries?

 

[MossRoad]

Has anyone seen that CP and KCS are intending to merge?
If it goes through, they will have coverage from the west to the east coast of Canada, through the middle of the US and to southern Mexico. This gives them access to traffic lanes and ports that no other railroad can match.

Yes. I think there was a competing bid from CN for KCS. Huge deal.

 

[the old grind]

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

Seems kind of 'bizzaro' to me. You close coal fired power plants, people against nuclear, all about wind and solar power which only works when the sun shines and the wind blows and the increase the grid load with electric cars and electrification of railroads... What is the tipping point??

Someday, someplace, somebody will put a slice of bread in the toaster and send the whole country into a blackout.