on Sat, Aug 30, 2003 at 02:19:39AM -0700, Paul Johnson (baloo@ursine.ca) wrote:
On Sat, Aug 30, 2003 at 01:44:43AM +0200, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
..2 reason diesel-electric locomotives are popular; they are
about as clean as your average power utility, and they dont
put heavy loads on the power grids.
Nope, and nope. Diesel electrics are popular because they give the
most bang for the buck. Vastly more efficient than gasoline engines
and mechanical transmissions (it's 2003, why can't I get a diesel
electric car?, with fewer moving parts than the steam engines it
replaced. This makes them dirt cheap and bloody reliable. The
railroads really couldn't give a damn about how much electric they're
using since they're not having to string thousands apon thousands of
miles of overhead lines (another costly expense railroads don't bother
with unless they can get economic benefit from the typically heavier
and faster trains that electrified lines run).
Electric traction offers a few benefits:
- Quieter.
- Less (near zero) right-of-way (RoW) pollution.
- Better high-speed performance.
- Fewer ventilation issues for tunnels or enclosed operations (e.g.:
RR terminals).
- Ability to power all axels.