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[quote user="Paul_D_North_Jr"]Although the press release says "hybrid", you're perceptive enough to comprehend that it's a straight battery-electric instead.  The caption to the NS drawing in the press release says "replace the engine and fuel tank", and there's no sign of any other engine or generator being installed, nor mention of one in the text.[/quote]   What they have produced is a new hybrid coal burning locomotive.  Or a coal-fired, steam turbine, battery-electric hybrid locomotive, to be precise.  It is indeed a hybrid, but the prime mover is out of sight, out of mind in a building somewhere else.  NS calls the locomotive “zero emission,” but of course that cannot be the case.    Moreover, the labels green, sustainable, and carbon footprint do not only account for how much fossil fuel is consumed and how much emissions are produced.  The terms actually take into account the full life cycle of energy input and natural resource extraction that goes into the item being labeled “green.”  The use of 1,080 lead acid batteries and how long they go before needing replacement ought to raise some eyebrows on anyone evaluating the greenness of this locomotive.  On the plus side, a locomotive is an ideal mobile unit to power with batteries, because the weight penalty normally associated with batteries does not matter to a locomotive, which uses weight to good advantage.
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