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On page 10 of the July issue of TRAINS there's a brief news item regarding the possibility of reviving plans for electrification due to the high cost of diesel fuel.  The consensus conclusion of the author seems to be that mainline electrification is still too expensive even with today's fuel prices due to the upfront costs of stringing catenary and buying whole fleets of electric locomotives.Taking a cue from the "Milwaukee Road Innovations" thread, I would like to return to the idea put forth a while back regarding the concept of converting some of the current fleet of diesel-electrics into dual power locomotives in the vein of the old FL9 concept.  We all know that diesel electrics draw their current from on board generators turned by compression-ignition engines.  How hard would it be to add-on the necessary components to today's modern diesels that would allow the traction motors to draw current straight from overhead wires?The point is, this dual power mode method would allow for electrification sections to be limited to the most energy intensive portions of a line, aka mountain grades.  That would certainly be a lot cheaper than electrifying whole subdivisions and buying whole redundant fleets of eletric-only locomotives, not to mention eliminating locomotive changeovers between electrified and non-electrified portions of the mainlines.Any takers?
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