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[quote user="MichaelSol"][quote user="Phoebe Vet"] I don't know much about steam, but if I am reading the pro steam argument correctly, steam engines reach their maximum torque at a much higher speed.  Therefore, to me at least, the argument does seem circular.  You seem to be using the 19 MPH horsepower to declare that the engines are similar when, in fact, you should be using MAXIMUM horsepower, to determine whether the engines are similar power.[/quote]And, if your primary purpose is to move trains, and every single train has to move between 0 and 20, and probably 90% of train movement occurs in that range, why would you be interested in "maximum" horsepower at an irrelevant number at all? The fact is, the diesel-electric's maximum hp occurs at 19 mph. That is not irrelevant -- it is entirely significant because a comparable steam engine developing that same maximum at that same speed, continues to develop hp.On metrics, that Steam engine is comparable on hp, on speed, and on weight on drivers -- that's three axes of comparison that demonstrates true statistical comparability and it is not ironic that when a railroad talks in terms of "comparable" motive power -- it is based on those criteria because they relate to how the power will pull the same trains. And the fact that that Steam engine will develop over 7,000 hp whereas the Diesel-electric is only over 5,000 is in fact a measure of MAXIMUM horsepower and if that is the important criteria to you, then you should, in fact, choose the locomotive with higher MAXIMUM horsepower. That happens to the be the Steam engine. [/quote]Yes but couldn't you just add a couple more diesel units to that FT locomotive and make it more powerful than the steamer? Would that then change the conclusion about the performance of steam versus diesel?
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