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[quote user="mudchicken"] Poor 3463 is gonna get butchered as a plaything for a gaggle of envirogeeks playing with other peoples money. What did it do to deserve this? Maybe BNSF ought to claim breach of donation agreement and reclaim the big fella. <div style="clear:both;"></div> [/quote] Yes, absolutely.  I think you have summed this up very well.  This proposal seems incredibly long on platitudinous rhetoric and short on substance.  The stated mission coupled with the implications suggest that this ATSF 4-6-4 will be very extensively modified.  My interpretation is that it will require a new boiler, piping, jacketing, cylinders, valves, drivers, rods, and exhaust nozzle.  I suspect it will require a new throttle and extensive revision to the backhead controls.  It will require a new firing system for the pellets, and possibly a new feed water system.  And with all this cutting, welding, machining, and re-designing, there will be bound to be limitations and compromises imposed by the fact that this is a remodel rather than starting with a clean sheet of paper.  In fact, I find it hard to believe that it would not be cheaper to start with a clean sheet of paper than to hack up this antique locomotive and convert it.   <o:p></o:p> Reply to some other comments about carbon neutral:  Burning wood is considered to be carbon neutral whereas burning coal or oil, is not.  Coal and oil are considered to have their CO2 sequestered.  In other words, the CO2 is permanently locked up as long as you don’t burn them.  The CO2 in wood is not considered to be sequestered because the wood will rot in a small number of years and release all of its CO2 just as it will if you burn it.   <o:p></o:p> However, the objective of being carbon neutral assumes a belief that CO2 is destroying the planet, and not everyone believes that.   <o:p></o:p> The torrefied biomass pellets that will be used to fire this carbon neutral locomotive must be manufactured in a plant.  I would like to see a cost analysis for this process.  However, since the objective is to be carbon neutral, I am not sure if there is an expectation that the fuel be less costly that coal or oil.  Carbon neutral can be a objective that requires a higher cost.  I wonder if they will use bamboo flooring in the cab.
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