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[ If you are going to go to the trouble of manufacturing a synthetic fuel why not just use the SASOL process used in South Africa to turn coal into diesel fuel? Then NO modifications to any existing locomotives is necessary. [/quote] I am not familiar with the SASOL process. What is the cost per gallon of such a product? Or better yet, what is the comparative cost per million Btu's? I know that both CENFuel and other "pre-cleaned" coal products can be made for under $3.00/mmBtu. On the other hand, diesel fuel runs $8.00 to $10.00/mmBtu. I assume the SASOL product is priced above that of diesel fuel, making it too expensive for large scale practical use in either the current fleet of diesel locomotives or next generation steam locomotives. A steam/traction hybrid locomotive burning synthetic coal to power the traditional rod powered drive (e.g. the primary mover), and using some sort of stored energy system to power fore and aft traction motors for start-up (the secondary mover, with dynamic/regenerative braking used to replenish on board energy storage) could conceivably be cost competitive with today's diesel locomotives. If such a locomotive can approach even half the thermal efficiency of today's diesels, the fuel price differential would in theory favor coal-fired steam hybrids.
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