Battery powered locomotives

[creepycrank]

ns3010

The closest thing to what you are proposing is NS 999.

http://www.nsdash9.com/rosters/999.html

The trouble with "999" is that they are using  over a 1000 truck batteries and I heard they were having a lot of problems with them.. They probably need such a large number to get the voltage up by connecting the in series. Submarine size batteries are available, and must be able to get enough voltage to drive the propulsion motor. Then you have the problem of charging them. 

The NYC had about eighty years ago a "tri - power" locomotive to run in NYC. It could run off the diesel engine or from a third rail, and when necessary on battery power alone.

[ns3010]

The closest thing to what you are proposing is NS 999.

http://www.nsdash9.com/rosters/999.html

[Sawtooth500]

Question: instead of traditional electrification has anybody thought of battery powered locomotives?

For example, in a locomotive you have the cab and then behind the cab you have the engine compartment with the prime mover and other equipment. So now just take a railcar frame and put an cab on the front of it, and right behind the cab for the length of the car just put a well, similar to how you'd have in an intermodal car. 

Now drop in that well a giant battery, similar to how you'd drop an intermodal container in the well. Also, this battery container could be very high, so that the total height of the locomotive is equal to a double stack height.

The energy density of batteries is less than the energy density of diesel fuel, so maybe this double stack height battery will be enough to be comparable to the amount of diesel fuel currently carried in a belly tank. If not, then for 6 driving axles instead of having two 3 axle trucks have three 2 axle trucks, so then the engine would still have the same number of prime movers but be two railcars in length. You'd have more weight on the movers then too for better adhesion. 

Obviously at this point you'd want to use DC traction motors, since you'd have DC coming out of the batteries, but you'd get advantages such as:

1. Much better fuel economy, especially in mountain territory as dynamic brakes could recharge the batteries instead of having that energy being dissipated in heat

2. Refueling could still be quick - yes the batteries would take a long time to charge, however you don't need to charge them on the track - the key what I saw above was make batter "containers" - at the servicing area have a crane similar to an intermodal crane that can pull the dead battery out of the locomotive and put it into a charging rack, and take a fully charged battery from the rack and put it into the locomotive. So refueling would be a pretty quick process. 

3. You would get rid of all the vibration of a diesel engine, which is one of the common complaints of rail unfriendly communities. 

This is just an idea, so I was wondering if anybody has ever tried something similar and what your thoughts on it are.