World’s first battery-electric freight train unveiled

[Mark]

‘Dramatically more powerful’: world’s first battery-electric freight train unveiled:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -emissions

The new train, known as the FLXdrive battery-electric locomotive, underwent successful trials in California earlier this year where it was found to have cut fuel consumption by 11%, which meant reducing the amount of diesel used by 6,200 gallons. Wabtec said that the next iteration of the locomotive, to be rolled out within two years, will be able to cut the consumption of diesel, the fossil fuel traditionally used in freight rail, by nearly a third.

[clv101]

Have the Americans not heard of overhead wires or pantographs?

[Catweazle]

Sounds like a good idea, the regenerative braking is simpler than with electrified tracks and it works in places electricity hasn't been installed - a lot of Wales for a start.

[adam2]

Electrification is best, but in places lacking same, a hybrid battery/diesel locomotive can save significant fuel.
100% battery power is possible if distances and speeds are modest.

The USA does have some electric railways, but only a small percentage of long distance routes are electrified. Part of the problem is the use of "double stacked" freight trains that carry two shipping containers one atop the other. This requires overhead wires to be at a greater height, which in turn brings problems at bridges and through stations.

There is also still a surprising amount of street running by American railroads, I doubt that 25 KV overhead would be allowed along the high street.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUX9kr4D1Xg video of American train with double stack containers AND street running. Diesel powered, but still a lot more efficient than moving that sort of load by truck.

[Mark]

Blimey......., very impressive.....

[PS_RalphW]

Diesel electric trains have been around since the 1950s. These were serial hybrids, which were basically diesel generators supplying power directly to the electric traction motors with no intermediate battery storage. This made the engines simpler with no gearboxes, but no regenerative braking. A new train line is due to be built just outside our village, part of the rebuilt Cambridge to Oxford line, and it will run 100% diesel, no electrification at all. I wonder couldn't we design a railway where the majority of the line has overhead electric cables, and when a low bridge is encountered, there is a gap in the power line, and the train is powered for a short distance on batteries? That would be far cheaper than raising every low bridge on the route.

[BritDownUnder]

Good to see Wabtec (formerly GE) doing this work. They have also talked about doing this for mining trucks which also presently use a diesel-electric transmission-less system.

In Western Australia, and no doubt many other places, there has been talk of hydrogen trains.
Back in the 1960s GE also experimented with using pulverised coal emulsions as a replacement for diesel engines. Apart from a much higher/frequent cleaning requirement there was supposedly little difference in performance.

I was thinking about the 'double-stacking' as the reason behind why the US does not go in for electrification of rail a lot more.

[Catweazle]

When a train gets that big it makes sense to take the power station with it. Nuclear power one day ?

[adam2]

I very much doubt that we will ever see a nuclear powered train.
The smallest* nuclear reactors are those used in submarines, still much too big to fit on a railway, and hugely expensive.

All busy railways should be electrified. Battery power is realistic for short lines, branches, sidings, and short sections of main lines that cant be electrified.

The de-facto world standard is 25 KV AC at 50 or 60 cycles. A sensible limit on current is probably about 1000 amps, which is 25 MW, ample for even a very long and heavy freight.

*Very small reactors are available that use thermocouples to generate electricity from the heat produced by radioactive decay. Very limited power and irrelevant here but mentioned in the interests of complete accuracy.

[adam2]

Here is the rather improbable case of a street running electric train !
Probably at a fairly low voltage, maybe 750 volts DC ? Would never be allowed here, and I am rather surprised that it is allowed in the USA.
Now reported as being 1500 volts DC, see following post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgy35ey41dg

[BritDownUnder]

According to Wikipedia it is 1500 V DC.

[Mark]

There's something hypnotic about those videos....,

But I guess it's not that much different to the trams running through the centre of Manchester...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btw8voClzVk

[BritDownUnder]

There's something hypnotic about those videos....,

But I guess it's not that much different to the trams running through the centre of Manchester...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btw8voClzVk

I actually went on the Manchester Tram system when I still lived in the UK so it must be fairly old.

I saw this person on another YouTube channel visiting (or at least passing through) every still open station on the whole British public rail network. It was surprisingly interesting.