If automonous trains come to pass, I can just hear the unions screaming unfair labor practice, since their members would not be needed.
Caldreamer
oltmannd--Yes on the above. Good thinking
If autonomous trains come to pass, the need to run really large trains for crew productivity will cease. Instead, really short, really frequent trains will rule the day. Those trains will need small, lower HP locomotives. How about a 1000 HP, two axle locomotive?
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
How about hybrid battery/hydrogen fuel cell locomotives? Perhaps DB could put hydrogen back into the fuel tank...
I think we're at the point of diminishing returns with electric transmissions, while there is still room for improvement, I don't see anything as dramatic as replacing DC traction motors with AC traction motors. Improvements with power electronics will allow reductions in the size and cost of inverters, shoul start being practical in putting AC motors in four axle locomotives.
Hybrid locomotives have the potential of being the next big thing, provided that adequate batteries are developed. Besides the reduction in fuel consumption, the potential advantages inlcude decoupling the prime mover output from perceived throttle response (locomotive responds immediately, engine ramps up and down slowly to meet T4 or T5 specs), and being able to idle the engines when raveling though tunnels and reducing the time to clear the air after a train goes through a long tunnel.
MidlandMikeHow about a lighter weight engine so they don't need 3 axle trucks.
How much more tonnage will a lighter weight engine pull and at what higher speed?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
How about a lighter weight engine so they don't need 3 axle trucks.
My guess? Cut the diesel. Battery-powered cars and trucks are on the rise, so why not trains? I know it would take up more space, but without a prime mover I would imagine you'd have plenty.
If batteries are too much of a stretch, then surely hydrogen fuel cells aren't.
Then it might be automation after that... that depends on how far off that technology is.
Since the advent of Diesel-Electrics it has seemed that every decade or so there has come along some major technological advancement that have moved the abilities of new locomotives a quantum jump ahead of their forebears.
AC's locomotives in the early 1990's werer the last technological jump in actual locomotive performance - all the advances since then have been primarily related to keeping the ground the original AC's won while complying with increasingly more strict Emission Requirements from T0 to T4.
What will be the next quantum leap in the Diesel Electric locomotives?
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