Battery-powered trains could be a climate game changer. Is everyone all aboard?

[lordsummerisle]

latimes.com

Colossal freight locomotives are a fixture of the American landscape, but their 4,400-horsepower engines collectively burn 3.5 billion gallons of diesel annually, at a time when railroads and other fossil fuel users face pressure to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-05/battery-powered-locomotives-zero-emission-train-future

[Random Boomer]

1. Someday... future plans... potentially....

We have run out of time for leisurely contemplations of better technology. Batteries won't be much use when tracks are melting from runaway heat waves.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Maybe for existing, some kind of carbon sequestration device on the engine might be viable

and cheaper, but ... for new ones? Sure.

Or maybe Hydrogen fuel cells instead of batteries.

Or maybe nuclear power. We have it on subs and ships ...

[paleotn]

3. Moving freight by rail...

even with conventional diesel locomotives produces several times less CO2 than the same amount of freight by truck. Even intermodal is far more environmentally friendly than trucks alone. It was once a a huge part of our infrastructure with rail lines serving nearly every two horse town in America. But much of that infrastructure is gone. It needs to be rebuilt.

[NNadir]

4. It is unbelievable that people keep acting as if a battery is primary source of energy.

How is it that no one has even a primitive notion of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, a law as inviolable as the laws of gravity?

[hunter]

5. Electric railways are not a new technology.

The first electric passenger train was presented by Werner von Siemens at Berlin in 1879. The locomotive was driven by a 2.2 kW, series-wound motor, and the train, consisting of the locomotive and three cars, reached a speed of 13 km/h. During four months, the train carried 90,000 passengers on a 300-metre-long (984 feet) circular track. The electricity (150 V DC) was supplied through a third insulated rail between the tracks. A contact roller was used to collect the electricity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_locomotive

This Swiss rail line was electrified in 1922:



Hybrid electric locomotives are expected to reduce fuel consumption by 30%, but full electrification is the way to go.

China has already built electrified rail lines that can handle railroad traffic carrying double stacked containers.