narrowgauge
92 year oldTrainz veteran
I have been thinking about the DHR and our portrayal of it and what the future holds for them both. My mind started going down this track, just blowing smoke but it may be of interest.
Consider a near future world where oil has become too expensive to use for transport fuel, what there is, is reserved for conversion to plastics to feed the world wide hunger for electronics. India is reputed to have the largest coal reserves in the world , so with coal fired power stations and possibly new nuclear ones, electricity would seem to be an assured source of transport energy.
Existing railway routes would be electrified with catenary and there would be a corresponding increase in coverage following the almost worldwide demise of personal auto transport, road freight and passenger air transport. Short country spur connecting lines could be equipped with battery powered rail cars. By this time, battery technology would have surpassed today’s level so coupled with solar panels; non-catenary electric rail transport is feasible. Third rail is not to be considered
So, that is the world we are looking at. How does it affect our DHR. Could we or should we make this a project
The DHR, like other hill railways still provide access to hill towns, in our case Darjeeling, and as there are no other rail lines to it, and the Cart road is almost bare of cars and trucks, the Indian Government is faced with two choices, 1: Abandon Darjeeling and all the towns down to the plains, or 2: Support the DHR and the changes needed to perform its now vital function of supporting the hill town.
It should be remembered that by now the hill population could have doubled or even trebled making the task even more onerous. Darjeeling and surrounds are important to India for religious reasons and being almost on the Northern border could be lost to India if abandoned.
I suggest that they could only accept the second choice. What would they do?
1: Relay the track to the same gauge but heavier rail.
2: Build improved protection against earth and rock slides.
3: Place wind generators wherever possible to help with local power loads
4: Lay catenary from top to bottom and use electric passenger sets and freight locos. (Discuss this, there could be problems)
OR
4: They could revert to steam using advanced versions of the B class and possible modern versions of the Garratt, or the Kitson Meyer principle which may be better on the tight curves.
4a: Passengers could be conveyed using battery electric cars, a consist of passenger cars and a separate battery box/ power car combination vehicle. These would only run short legs, at each small town they would uncouple the battery/power car and connect a charged one to continue. Coming down hill could probably be done without recharging, using regenerative braking. Urgent light freight could also be carried the same way
4b: Although not railway related, cable transport would be re-established.
Should we consider a project to reflect these and other probable changes in a 'futureized' version of the DHR?
Peter
Consider a near future world where oil has become too expensive to use for transport fuel, what there is, is reserved for conversion to plastics to feed the world wide hunger for electronics. India is reputed to have the largest coal reserves in the world , so with coal fired power stations and possibly new nuclear ones, electricity would seem to be an assured source of transport energy.
Existing railway routes would be electrified with catenary and there would be a corresponding increase in coverage following the almost worldwide demise of personal auto transport, road freight and passenger air transport. Short country spur connecting lines could be equipped with battery powered rail cars. By this time, battery technology would have surpassed today’s level so coupled with solar panels; non-catenary electric rail transport is feasible. Third rail is not to be considered
So, that is the world we are looking at. How does it affect our DHR. Could we or should we make this a project
The DHR, like other hill railways still provide access to hill towns, in our case Darjeeling, and as there are no other rail lines to it, and the Cart road is almost bare of cars and trucks, the Indian Government is faced with two choices, 1: Abandon Darjeeling and all the towns down to the plains, or 2: Support the DHR and the changes needed to perform its now vital function of supporting the hill town.
It should be remembered that by now the hill population could have doubled or even trebled making the task even more onerous. Darjeeling and surrounds are important to India for religious reasons and being almost on the Northern border could be lost to India if abandoned.
I suggest that they could only accept the second choice. What would they do?
1: Relay the track to the same gauge but heavier rail.
2: Build improved protection against earth and rock slides.
3: Place wind generators wherever possible to help with local power loads
4: Lay catenary from top to bottom and use electric passenger sets and freight locos. (Discuss this, there could be problems)
OR
4: They could revert to steam using advanced versions of the B class and possible modern versions of the Garratt, or the Kitson Meyer principle which may be better on the tight curves.
4a: Passengers could be conveyed using battery electric cars, a consist of passenger cars and a separate battery box/ power car combination vehicle. These would only run short legs, at each small town they would uncouple the battery/power car and connect a charged one to continue. Coming down hill could probably be done without recharging, using regenerative braking. Urgent light freight could also be carried the same way
4b: Although not railway related, cable transport would be re-established.
Should we consider a project to reflect these and other probable changes in a 'futureized' version of the DHR?
Peter