Jet Turbine Locomotives

An anonymous submitter writes "I saw this article in the paper today. Not only is it lighter than a comparable diesel engine, it should burn the fuel more completely and be a bit better for the environment. Not to mention it is much faster. They should make more of a point that the North American railway system needs a major overhaul in order to support faster trains." The Department of Transportation has some information about next-generation trains, including a design incorporating a flywheel to improve acceleration.

Comments

this shouldn't have been accepted by /.

[sstory]

this shouldn't have been accepted by /. Trains are nearly obsolete. The circumstances of their locomotion substantially affect very few people. Let's have more cool stuff like space elevators, and less boring stuff, like train propulsion.

Re:this shouldn't have been accepted by /.

[sstory]

whomever modded this should be able to distinguish negative from troll and offtopic. the train story was retarded, boring, and irrelevant, and should not have been accepted.

Who's going to pay for it?

[anthony_dipierro]

The nearly bankrupt Amtrak is already sucking billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers.

Re:Remindes me of the JATO Impala story

[Tattva]

Then Amtrak bought these turbo trains from the French. They are not at all nice, lighter weight, uncomfortable, slowish trains with not much room, snack cars, and seats that are like airliner seats. ( Some moron at Amtrak probably thought they were loosing business to the airlines because people like those airline seats.)

So by your reasoning:

Horses are so much better than the smelly, prone-to-breakdown, ugly model T. I'll stick with my horse before I try this new Accura Integra because the model T sucked.

Re:Umm, have we invented electricity yet?

[nuggz]

Why would we want electric locomotives? Fossil fuel is cheaper and more efficient.

Plus the electricity would probaly come from burning more crap at power plants.