World's First All-Electric Locomotive Has Over 1,000 Batteries, Runs 24 Hours On a Si

Rusty1955 said:
My fellow Trainzers:

I posted this because I thought it was an interesting article, NOT TO RESTART THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
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Don't sweat it Rusty, nobody is at war, you have started a discussion that is informative and above all still friendly :wave:

There is a lot of mis-information out there about "green power", all power comes at a pollution cost, even the so called carbon free wind/solar power, those components use power and create pollution when being manufactured, also UP have had the "green goat" for quite a few years, this is a hybrid that realistically cuts fuel/pollution from normal switchers by up to 80% (but at least 60%), both saving the company money and the environment with less pollution for the same work load, and does not use the power grid to recharge (this is an important consideration for any "green" power), it will be this technology that hauls our trains until a better method is devised.

Cheers David
 
Read this website I found, http://www.truthaboutenergy.com/ or listen to Rush Limbaugh he will set you right.

I think recently the Americans ordered ten extra cargo jets for the Air Force that it doesn't require because the lobbyists were used to save some jobs at the factory that makes planes. The cost per job is horrendous but that's how America seems to function these days.
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I hate to tell you, but that was a US GOV. Congress Representative, who did that. He is also for "green energy". Next time you speak about America check up on the facts, such as watching FOX.

Here is a extra note, may I ask how we survived the million years of human and animal life? Think of all of the carbon those people and animals put out.

This is just my thought,
JRT
 
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Energy comes from the Sun, falling onto the Earth at a constant rate, the human race has been using this energy (stored as coal, oil, wood etc) since the industrial age a lot faster than the Sun can replace it, very soon it will get to a stage that we only have what is falling to Earth and have no reserves left, then everyone will find out just how our ancestors lived within their energy allotment, only we are used to consuming a lot more, just think, nuclear power or Hydro power the only source of Mega power :cool:

Get ready for it, it's coming faster than you think :D

Cheers David

Edit, also the world population has increased over tenfold since the industrial age started, and the birthrate is getting faster.
 
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Yep!

pommie said:
Energy comes from the Sun, falling onto the Earth at a constant rate, the human race has been using this energy (stored as coal, oil, wood etc) since the industrial age a lot faster than the Sun can replace it, very soon it will get to a stage that we only have what is falling to Earth and have no reserves left, then everyone will find out just how our ancestors lived within their energy allotment, only we are used to consuming a lot more, just think, nuclear power or Hydro power the only source of Mega power :cool:

Get ready for it, it's coming faster than you think :D

Cheers David

Edit, also the world population has increased over tenfold since the industrial age started, and the birthrate is getting faster.
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My twopennyworth,
Yep, what happens when the stored energy runs out? And why is it running out? The more of us here, the more we use, just what I said in my first reply on page 1, we are over-populating the place and at the same time raping the Earth of resources.
I will applaud any way of creating energy by a 'green' method, but it has to be 'green' and not an half baked green. I don't know what that source might be but nuclear seems to be the only option at the moment until other ways are developed to replace it.
As far as the Earth's populations goes, I cannot see a way around that, we are creating our very own Extinction Event!

And yes, this is a friendly discussion and we must keep it that way.

An interesting thread my friend.

Angela
 
gp792 said:
Not only does it look good, it is also good for the environment! That is the coolest locomotive I have ever seen. They look like diesels, but they're electric.
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Remember, todays locos are diesel-electrics. All this electric loco is, it's a diesel-electric with the diesel replaced by 1080 lead-acid batteries. So it's a battery-electric:p

Bob
 
I would like to propose an alternative alternative.
I do like this engine - hooray for batteries! Everyone can see that it only pushes the production of the carbon up the supply chain one notch and buy doing that, actually increases the carbon due to the distance from the power source. Every time you add transmission you increase losses - that's physics.

The batteries take the place of the diesel motor and generator assembly in the engine. The electric motors (I'm guessing) are the same as usual. So let's get real cheap here. Take a normal engine. Connect up a boxcar full of 1080 batteries. Plug in the cables to by-pass the diesel motor and generator. Ta-da! electric hybrid. Not only that, but you make a whole bunch of boxcars or battery cars or power cars or Energy-Tenders (e-tenders - I said first! :) )
Store and charge the tenders in a charging yard.
Now the engine comes by drops the e-tender off and picks up a fresh one and away he goes.
No coal, no fuel except for the diesel engine shifting the tenders no grid traffic.
Photo voltaic cells wouldn't be the way I would suggest though. It would be far better to have each tender plugged into a sterling powered generator and heliostat. Or use a combined cycle generator with CS trough powered steam turbine. That way you can charge overnight on the surplus heat from the day.
 
VinnyBarb said:
...Surviving the million years in the past with carbon emissions? Yeah, right! I can see ALL the industries in the last million or so of years past belching out carbon emissions after carbon emissions at the same or similar scale as we do now...
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Hold your Horses Sir.

I hope you do realize that Volcanic Activity in Earth's Past produced TITANIC amounts of Carbon, and with the Multitude of Eruptions over Millions of Years, The Carbon output could and probably HAS matched the Scale of our Industrial Pollution Output.


I guess nobody seems to Remember how much Mother Nature 'Pollutes' on her own though... :n:
 
Excellent point Sampug, and well worth considering in an overall discussion of World pollution, however in this discussion we are only considering the man made pollution via railroad locomotives, which is not insignificant even against volcanoes as locomotives spew out pollution 24/7 all over the world.

Cheers David
 
Sampug394 said:
Hold your Horses Sir.

I hope you do realize that Volcanic Activity in Earth's Past produced TITANIC amounts of Carbon, and with the Multitude of Eruptions over Millions of Years, The Carbon output could and probably HAS matched the Scale of our Industrial Pollution Output.


I guess nobody seems to Remember how much Mother Nature 'Pollutes' on her own though... :n:
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I was under the impression that no people were alive at the time?

Cheerio John
 
Article: World's first, blah, blah, blah
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I haven't the energy or time to read through the whole thread, but didb't the very first "electric" locomotive use batteries in about 1879 or their abouts?

EDIT, NOTE TO ADMIN.: While I was pressing SUBMIT, for a while, I couldn't access this Trainz forum site.

PS: At AJ_Fox, I know you say that politics isn't right for this board, however politics plays a very large part of transport, be it railways/roads or not.
 
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We all are stile friends here....I might say its not me. I say USA is the best in freedom, what does pommie say,"*****".

pommie, I feel vary sorry for you...you have my pity.

JRT
 
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angelah said:
On another note I remember London Smog, couldn't see a hand in front of your face, literally, and it killed an awful lot of people. Answer... clean up the power stations and indutrial giants who burnt fossil fuels and take steam locomotives off the rails. We breath reasonably good air now, apart from all the diesel engines on the roads pumping polution out of course... ha ha ha.

Angela
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"I can see you live in Australia, may I ask why America is the world leader and Australia is not."

Two very interesting comments.

I also remember thick fog or smog before the UK clean air acts. Air pollution from diesels is a major air quality problem in our cities so perhaps this type of loco could go some way to address that.

If we assume that one of the objectives is to improve health besides combatting global warming then countries that have a longer life expectancy are probably doing something right.

The order is:

Australia
Canada
UK
USA

This is despite the USA higher spending on health care.

So Pommie what's the secret of life? What can us poor Canadians learn from Aussies? I suspect its not to shovel snow in winter but I could be wrong.

Cheerio John
 
People are under the mistaken (taken for granted) impression that recycling stuff, actually recycles 100% of the stuff, and that the recycled stuff is totally re-usable. With plastic, metal, newspaper, cardboard, batteries, lead, copper, lithium, barrium, selinium, sulfuric acid...etc...etc there is a huge waste water runoff, and huge amounts of trace materials and unusable materials are left for the landfill, which in turn seeps into the underground water aquafier. Near Scranton Pa there was a huge battery dump, where they cracked open all the batteries to get to the lead and copper. Much of the land was hoplessly fouled by sulfuric acid contamination. Even though it is a so called: "cleaned up" superfund site, the area will feel the polution effects of the battery dump for tens of thousands of years...it never goes away, and can not be totally cleaned up, no matter how much technology is used in the reclamation (recycling) process. More millions of leaking discarded batteriies...that's all we need.:'(

Electrify the Phila to Chicago line as a test for revitalizing the cantenary system of powering loco's.
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/PRR-TGV1.jpg
 
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johnwhelan said:
"I can see you live in Australia, may I ask why America is the world leader and Australia is not."

Two very interesting comments.

I also remember thick fog or smog before the UK clean air acts. Air pollution from diesels is a major air quality problem in our cities so perhaps this type of loco could go some way to address that.

If we assume that one of the objectives is to improve health besides combatting global warming then countries that have a longer life expectancy are probably doing something right.

The order is:

Australia
Canada
UK
USA

This is despite the USA higher spending on health care.

So Pommie what's the secret of life? What can us poor Canadians learn from Aussies? I suspect its not to shovel snow in winter but I could be wrong.

Cheerio John
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That is one more thing, as it is right now the US heath care is the best. When we go into a hospital you are rushed in. Taken car of. I have read many stores about "free heathcar" how it takes years, months to get in. Once again socialist ideas never work. As of most hospitals are owned by the government in your country's. The gov. pays for them via taxes, but once again the people who don't pay taxes get free heath care. So basically you are paying for someone else. Now, what do you think of that.
 
JRT said:
That is one more thing, as it is right now the US heath care is the best. When we go into a hospital you are rushed in. Taken car of. I have read many stores about "free heathcar" how it takes years, months to get in. Once again socialist ideas never work. As of most hospitals are owned by the government in your country's. The gov. pays for them via taxes, but once again the people who don't pay taxes get free heath care. So basically you are paying for someone else. Now, what do you think of that.
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Health care systems vary slightly from country to country. In the UK you have the choice of either accepting the normal NHS health service standards or paying to go privately. There are service level such as treatment must commence within so many days of diagnosis etc.

In Canada it varies a little from province to province. In general if I have an emergency the paramedics arrive within 8 mins and either treat me at home or take me into hospital. In dire emergency the local fire service who are also qualified paramedics are less than 2 mins away. Emergencies are treated first then we sort out who pays afterwards. One or two Americans without health insurance have been quite surprised by this when they have been involved in a car accident for example. So yes I agree we do pay for some one else's health care from time to time but the tourist dollars compensate a little.

The impression I have is most non urgent operations are done in a reasonable time frame. Currently some procedures are being delayed because of the need to inoculate against swine flu.

If you think of the provincial health plans as a Managed Health Care Plan then that's fairly close. I think you have something similar in the US where the "Managed Health Care Plan" pays for treatment at only some hospitals and puts an emphasis on prevention in order to control costs. The main driving force is the health of the patient. In the US I understand that insurance companies are happy to pay for alternate medicine, they can make more profit because the patient doesn't live as long, a slightly different emphisis. Also there is a problem that when people get laid off they sometimes lose their health insurance at a very stressful time of their lives. People under stress tend to have more accidents, heart attacks and other illnesses so just at the time when they most need it health care isn't there.

As in most things prevention is usually cheaper than anything else and the Government run health care systems are geared up this way. Things like TB are difficult, if the person can't afford their drugs they go on to infect more people. So more emphasis on prevention, preventing accidents, by laws that are based on statistics that say things like you may not use a cell phone when driving. Trying to tackle air pollution in city centers by promoting electric locos etc. Also just not having to worry about health care if you get laid off lowers the stress so also lowers associated health care costs. I understand this isn't the US way of doing things, I think you are much more into prayer than using seat belts, but it does come with a cost and that cost is both monetary and in the average life expectancy.

However I think we are digressing a little and as AJ has mentioned there are other places where you can discuss American health care. It's only of academic interest to me, mind you if I was living in the US then I would be much more concerned that I wasn't being "ripped off" to use a UK expression ie being over charged for something that didn't work very well.

Cheerio John
 
If I may digress for a moment:
We had zero emission locomotives doing switching (shunting) at industries perhaps a hundred years ago. They used entirely clean compressed air. :eek:
 
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