ELECTRIC TRAINS

WERE  SOME  SIMPLE SOLUTIONS  THAT  WOULD HAVE CREATED PIECEMEAL IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRIFICATION AT THE CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILROAD NOT ACCOMPLISHED BECAUSE THE CLERKS THREW LINDON COLLARD OFF THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT PROGRAM AT THE CNR DESPITE HIS HAVING A PERFECT PERFORMANCE RATING AND POSSIBLY THE HIGHEST SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEST SCORES EVER ACHIEVED? LINDON WAS A  CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILROAD EMPLOYEE FROM 1963 UNTIL HE WAS CHEATED OF EVERYTHING HE HAD ACCOMPLISHED IN 1970 BY CNR CLERKS AND A SYSTEMATICALLY CROOKED LAW SOCIETY PROCESS THAT DEFAMED HIM.

EXISTING SURPLUS ROLLING STOCK COULD HAVE BEEN CONVERTED INTO BATTERY CARS WHICH WOULD FEED POWER TO LOCOMOTIVES. BATTERY CARS COULD BE DROPPED OFF, SWAPPED FOR ALREADY CHARGED CARS AND THEN CHARGED FROM THE MAIN ELECTRICAL GRID WHEREVER THAT WAS POSSIBLE.

NOW THERE ARE BETTER BATTERIES AND BETTER ELECTRICAL CONTROL DEVICES. TRAINS COULD LEAVE TOWN WITHOUT EMISSIONS AND WITHOUT SOUND POLLUTION. BY TODAY A LOT OF CARBON EMISSIONS WOULD HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED.

Wabtec's FLXDrive locomotive is described as the world’s first 100-percent battery-powered locomotive

Wabtec

THIS MATERIAL IS FROM INFORMATION POSTED ONLINE.Since today's diesel locomotives typically run electric drive systems anyway, using the diesel engine as a generator, it's not difficult to convert them to DC battery power. You just need a big battery and the wiring to connect it to the drive system.

In the new study paper, the team proposes attaching dedicated battery boxcars behind the locomotive. Each boxcar, the team calculates, could pull as much as 14 MWh of energy storage in the form of long-cycle-life lithium ferrous phosphate batteries. You can run multiple locomotives, and/or multiple battery boxcars, to power a given train.

This study analyzes the energy use, practicalities and economics of a theoretical train operating in California, using four 3.3-megawatt locomotives pulling 100 boxcars and 6,806 tonnes of revenue-earning cargo, powered by a single battery boxcar.

It finds that this one large battery pack is enough to achieve a 241-km (150-mile) range, enough to meet the average distance between stops for US Class 1 freight trains. The weight of the battery car increases the train's energy use by about 5 percent, says the team, but the overall energy consumption of the train is about half what a typical diesel-electric train uses, thanks to the high efficiency of batteries and the ability to harvest some braking energy back into the system.

The battery cars could be charged at each stop during loading, unloading and crew changes, assuming a fast charger could be provided. This would take between 30-60 minutes using existing 2C charging technology. Alternatively, the battery car could potentially be swapped out for a fresh one – meaning little in the way of fancy infrastructure would be needed, and a spent battery could slowly charge up until it's next needed.

In terms of economics, the team calculated the total cost of ownership (TCO) for battery-electric and diesel-electric locomotives over 20 years, and found that battery-electrics should cost between US$6.47 to 8 million apiece, with the lion's share taken up by battery and charging infrastructure costs. Diesels will cost around $5.85 million each, the bulk of that taken up by fuel and maintenance.

But that's assuming there's no environmental damage costs – if these are levied "under the assumption of continued roll-out of the EPA Tier 4 rule," according to the researchers, this could take the TCO of a diesel locomotive up to $11.83 million.

Should the entire US rail sector electrify its fleets in this manner, the team points out that the country will 

effectively have some 200 gigawatt-hours of modular, mobile energy storage rolling around the country, 

portions of which can be dropped off to stricken areas suffering power loss from extreme weather events. 

This needn't cause the rail system to grind to a halt; the diesel engines are still on board, ready to go if needed. 

While connected to the grid for charging, they could also provide valuable fast-response load-balancing services, 

as well. Both of these could become revenue opportunities.

There is also the potential for diesel locomotives to be converted to run on ammonia, which would make the

energy storage smaller and lighter than hydrogen or batteries. Ammonia would also simplify fueling logistics. 

On the other side of the coin, green ammonia will be more expensive than hydrogen fuel, and burning it will be 

less efficient than running hydrogen through a fuel cell. 

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