Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
The prospect of having that electrical line come down on you in a derailment does seem a bit ominous.  Maybe there is an automatic system to shut the power off if a tower begins to topple.  Those towers would surely come down fast in the case of any contact with derailing cars.  And when trains derail, they tend to slide cars out over a substantial area adjacent to the track.     <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> I am thinking about this electric line / freight train coexistence extending for hundreds and hundreds of miles out west on the BNSF, as has been proposed.  The longer the train and the electric line run next to each other, the greater the odds of a conflict between the two.  It is quite possible that high voltage lines could drop onto a train without jeopardizing the crew, but there are all manner of possible scenarios where the lines could kill. <o:p></o:p> I believe it would be possible to run such a high voltage line along a rail corridor with the use of crash walls to protect it from derailing trains, but I don’t see that kind of protection in the photos above.  Power line derailment protection would cost a lot over the long distances.   <o:p></o:p> There is an attraction to the idea of using rail corridors for new power lines.  Such lines will be needed, and they will especially be needed in the vast reaches of the west because that is where the wind farms will be built, and wind energy is a major component of the renewable energy revolution.    The attractiveness of using rail corridors for the new electric lines is the avoidance of the need to acquire a new right of way for the electric line.  Right of way acquisition these days is a killer.  So adding these lines to railroad corridors seems like a slam-dunk.  There is free space above the trains.   I believe there is also the possibility of adding power lines to rail corridors and placing them underground.  This would seem to offer natural protection to the electric lines in case of a train derailment.  But there are electrical issues that flow from the choice of lines being aboveground versus belowground.  Maybe somebody could chime in on those electrical issues.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag