Locomotives of the future

[danmick]

What sorts of locomotives do you think will be showing up in the next twenty years? It's obvious that the world's supply of fossil fuels is running dry and some experts believe that oil reserves will dry up in less than 30 years. This means that locomotives will need to run on an alternative energy source.

GE is heading in the right direction with the development of their hybrid locomotive, due out in 2007; but this still requires diesel fuel to operate.

The U.S. army is currently designing a fuel cell locomotive - a project that will take five years to complete. This would be a viable alternative to diesel-electric...as soon as we can find an efficient source of hydrogen.

Or are we likely to see large-scale electrification of North America's railways? It's proven technology, but it would take billions of dollars and many years to change and upgrade the existing infrastructure.

Let me know what you think.

[tpatrick]

Don't listen to the "experts." The best minds of the 1970's predicted the exhaustion of the world's oil reserves by the year 2000. President Carter actually them seriously. He and they also believed in the coming global cooling. Today we have more oil in reserve than we had then. A lot of people are happy to walk away from easy oil in Alaska just to save some caribou. When supplies are truly tight, they will change their minds. There are huge supplies of untapped tar sands oil and shale oil. And don't forget in the US alone we have several centuries' supply of coal. The supply of fossil fuel will be more than adequate for centuries to come. The cost may rise but we won't run out.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

For road service, diesel-electrics will continue to be the standard. I don't foresee any of the other proposals becoming economically viable in the near future.

In yards, dual-power hybrids will become more common. The nature of switching service makes this design practicable. While they are cleaner, they may also be cheaper to operate due to less fuel consumption.

[CMSTPP]

Well we will put it this way. WHY....Diesel? There is a good burning fuel if not better called E85. Any Diesel engine can be turned over to burn E85 and the best part is that the stuff is made of corn oils. So no worries there for, will it run out?
Many people have swicthed there cars and trucks over to burning E85. People have even experimented with the stuff on locomotives and guess what.,,,, it worked. E 85 believe it or not can burn just as hot and can make an engine just as strong. If you look on the internet for E85 you will find many sites. What I hear about oil is probably true but you can't be for curtain. Time will tell. gas right now is about 2.04$ per gallon, E85 is 1.71$ per gallon and coming down too. There's your alternate fuel source and for those that don't think this is true ask your car dealership and they will give you an idea on how to switch over to E85.
[8D]

James

[nssr9169]

i BELIVE THAT THE RAILROADS ANR'T DESPERATE ENOUGH TO CONVERT THOUSANDS OF LOCOMOTIVES TO ALTERNET FUELS AS LISTED BY CMSTPP, BUT MAYBEE GREEN GOAT IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE. WE COULD VERRY POSSIBLLY SEE CATIPILLER AND BOSSIE BUILT HIBRIDS[xx(]

BUT WITH A CHOICE GIVE ME A SET OF 6 MU'ED SW1'S IN MILWAKEE ROAD AND LET ME CRUSE THE RAILS IN 600H.P. STYLE[oX)][oX)]

[Valleyline]

I would guess that electrification may be economically feasible on some high density lines. Perhaps a good prospect would be the Orin coal line in Wyoming. They could build power plants right at the mines to power the trains. Also, this is a hilly railroad with lots of steep but relatively short grades. A lot of dynamic brake energy could be pumped back into the system rather than wasted through the dynamic brake grids on diesels. The electrification would be very expensive but Wyoming coal is a lot cheaper than foreign oil.

[Bill H.]

THIS is here, now. At 300 km/h I can't see much modeling interest unless one has a really, REALLY BIG layout.

http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~dajf/byunbyun/types.htm