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Alan, have you got any idea of where the trade-off points between diesel trains and electrifying the track come in?
Obviously it is a moving target, depending on the price of diesel or synfuel or whatever vs the cost of the electric and installation, but there must be indicators of how dense traffic needs to be to make electrification worthwhile for any given traffic level.
Even though it is relatively inefficient I am wondering if non-electric trains running on synfuel of some sort might not be a better option than electrification for remote rural areas - I know that on some lines in the UK which are lightly used it is actually more fuel efficient to travel by car with a couple of people in it than to catch the train, so it is obviously horses for courses.
That is why I propose electrifying only 65,000 of 178,000 miles of US railroads. A difficult determination to make exactly without extensive knowledge of specific railroad operations. At $120/barrel, perhaps 4 trains/day might be break even (MANY variables !)
OTOH, there are operating savings to an all electrified railroad. No loco switching, no fuel storage & handling, no diesel maintenance.
After Phase I of electrifying 65,000 miles of main lines and heavy spur lines, I think that regions will switch to 100% electrification. West Coast first IMHO.
Best Hopes,
Alan
And as the discretionary side of the economy continues to implode, we are going to need the jobs.
QUITE true !
And investing in long lived energy efficient infrastructure rather than consumerism has many benefits for us and those that come after us.
Best Hopes for Making a Virtue of Necessity,
Alan
Yes, there will be plenty of work to do, but how will the people be paid?
We're looking at local currencies as the federal dollar likely implodes.
From my profile:
http://www.complementarycurrency.org/materials.php
http://www.communitycurrency.org/resources.html
One interesting new development in locomotive power is the hybrid diesel/electric locomotive. GE has developed a main haul hybrid locomotive and Canadian manufacturer Railpower has a switching hybrid locomotive. Since most conventional diesel/electric locomotives are already essentially series hybrid vehicles without the batteries, the technology is pretty simple to add. Just replace the resistance banks currently used for dynamic braking with batteries. They usually put in smaller diesel generators, since the batteries contribute significantly to the power. Railpower also has developed a hybrid rubber-tired gantry crane for handling large shipping containers.
Hybrid switchers could become essentially the equivalent to a Chevy Volt with overnight battery re-charging stations, further reducing diesel fuel requirements and emissions. Also, by adding electrical overhead pickups, main haul hybrid locomotives could be flex-fuel vehicles, running as pure electric locomotives where electrical distribution allows for overhead lines and switching to their diesel generators where the lines aren’t economic.
Dave, if you get a chance check out an article in the current issue of 'The Railway' magazine in the UK on how "Green are the railways".
All types of railway locomotion are compared via thermal efficiency with some interesting conclusions, ie for passenger transport a diesel loco with coaching stock is deemed the most efficient.
Now I know why when in Berlin last year the DB were running regional services with diesel, double decker coaches, and driving unit on the end. All the advantages of multiple unit operation without a required loco run around at the turn around point but with all the efficiences of single loco operation.