G'Day RR Redneck,
Diesels wil run quite happily on cooking grease, provided it hasn't been used to cook chicken. This has been discovered in tests here in Australia. I don't know why this happens, but I believe it to be true.
Regards,
Malcolm.
Thirty years ago, remember the Arab Oil Embargo, we were told the World would be "out of oil" in 25 years.
Now "they" say we will be "out of oil" in another 30 years???????
Oil prices go up, the US goes into a recession, the world oil consumption falls, over supply of oil in the market, oil prices fall, the economy recovers, etc.
Don U. TCA 73-5735
Electrification of those rail lines with the highest annual tonnage could be in the offing in the very near future if the economics are right and especially if Uncle Sam is pushing it or giving tax credits for it.
UH... I hate to tell you but the bulk of power is generated form fossil fuel plants of which coal is basically not allowed to be built anymore due to pollution concerns. See today's Wall Street Journal for confirmation of over 150 planned plants canceled. Guess what that leaves to make the heat to make the steam to make the electricity? BTU for BTU electricty takes more due to the generation losses. We won't run out of oil regardless of the sky is falling crowd. At some point something else will be economically viable if it continues to rise in cost but it won't be electricity and we won't run out.
Oh yes I remeber the 70's. Oil will be gone by the next century ( hmmm this one or the next one) How many of you 30 somethings remeber the first earth day? STOP GLOBAL ICE AGE NOW!!! Oh yeah that was supposed to be happening in the mid 80's. Maybe if you would listen to real scientists and not these fruit loops that take money from Al Gore and every twig and nut eater in the great state of Hollywood. Leonardo Dicaprio comes to mind. Stop driving SUV's but he flies in a plane from here to France and the like. Oh yes bow down to your overlords who spread the lies but dont follow their own advice.
Now I will step off my soapbox.
Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train
Everybody keeps trying to solve tomorrow's problems with yesterday's technology.
Every self-serving junk-science pusher and psuedo-environmentalist will tell you that absolute doom is on the way and WE MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! When you ask what to do, they suggest a flying leap back to the seventeenth century, or something equally absurd. Or else they say that we need to pass laws... (As if technologically challenged politicians can legislate technological advances by magic!)
In the meantime, in laboratories ranging from backyard workshops to major universities and the research departments of multi-national corporations, the advances that will save the world as we know it are being developed - mostly in secret, all below the media radar, almost all completely beyond the comprehension level of pundits and politicians. If we are smart enough to let these things happen, things will be better.
Of course, the human species has a long history of shooting its own toes off. Look at the actions of the French peasantry during the Little Ice Age... Hopefully, we now realize that some changes really are improvements.
Chuck
why go to all the trouble of electrifying when existing locomotives can just be converted to run on vegetable oil? you CAN run a slightly modifyed diesel engine on vegetable oil you know
Kevin
kevin hill wrote:why go to all the trouble of electrifying when existing locomotives can just be converted to run on vegetable oil? you CAN run a slightly modifyed diesel engine on vegetable oil you know Kevin
Right now, plants are being built to convert coal to clean diesel. (google "CTL" or go to www.rentech.com for details.)
The bigger question is, where are we goin to get jet fuel?
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock