Re:Umm, have we invented electricity yet?
on
Jet Turbine Locomotives
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I would prefer that you did some research before you begin spouting off a load of bullshit about a topic you know nothing about. Gone are the days of 40 rail sticks that need to be bolted together by hand. On all the Class 1 railroad main-lines in the United States (Union Pacific, BNSF, etc,) there is a federal mandate for continuously welded rail that will support heavy freight (>10,000 foot trains, several thousand tons) at 79 MPH. The rail that is laid is welded continuously after being extruded in 1000+ foot pieces.
The reason not all rail in the United States is welded is because our railroads need to maintain 100,000+ miles of track. This is an amazing task. Probably 70,000 miles is not welded rail, and was probably built in 40 foot sections. One rail weld cost approximately 600 dollars (US) because of the precision and method necessary to not compromise the integrity of the rail itself. If we assume conservatively that we have 50,000 miles of rail to weld, will 40 foot rails, and at 600 dollars per weld, the total comes to approximately 8 billion dollars. This expense would have minimal benefit because the rail that would be welded does not carry enough traffic to justify the expense.
Finally, the main reason our railroads are not electrified (other than the massive amount of electrification that would have to occur) is the type of cargo we haul on the railroads. European and Japanese railroads are primarily passenger railroads. This function lends itself to high speed and low weight. Our railroads are primarily freight carrying, and long heavy trains at that. Currently, to take a loaded, 10,000 foot train over Cajon Pass in California (approx 2% grade for 20+ miles), 6 6000 horsepower locomotives are required. Each of these locomotives generates approximately 4-5 MegaWatts at peak capacity. That is enough to power a multitude of homes. The logistics of delivering that kind of power is just unreasonable. Some mining railroads use electric locomotives, or used to. Kennecott Copper in Nevada and Utah comes to mind immediately. They had some of the largest electric freight locomotives ever built, and yet they dieselized. Why? because the cost of providing 12,000 volts over a couple hundred miles of rail was prohibitively expensive. Can you imagine the immense cost of doing the same for the entire US rail system? It would be impossible.
Electrification works great on a small scale, for passenger operations. Large scale freight operations do not lend themselves particularly well to electrification.
Please at least have some facts before you make a post bashing the US rail system. The rail system works amazingly well for the scope of the operations it has to carry, and the distances it has to cover. I guarantee you that we would be much less prosperous as a country without them.
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I would prefer that you did some research before you begin spouting off a load of bullshit about a topic you know nothing about. Gone are the days of 40 rail sticks that need to be bolted together by hand. On all the Class 1 railroad main-lines in the United States (Union Pacific, BNSF, etc,) there is a federal mandate for continuously welded rail that will support heavy freight (>10,000 foot trains, several thousand tons) at 79 MPH. The rail that is laid is welded continuously after being extruded in 1000+ foot pieces.
The reason not all rail in the United States is welded is because our railroads need to maintain 100,000+ miles of track. This is an amazing task. Probably 70,000 miles is not welded rail, and was probably built in 40 foot sections. One rail weld cost approximately 600 dollars (US) because of the precision and method necessary to not compromise the integrity of the rail itself. If we assume conservatively that we have 50,000 miles of rail to weld, will 40 foot rails, and at 600 dollars per weld, the total comes to approximately 8 billion dollars. This expense would have minimal benefit because the rail that would be welded does not carry enough traffic to justify the expense.
Finally, the main reason our railroads are not electrified (other than the massive amount of electrification that would have to occur) is the type of cargo we haul on the railroads. European and Japanese railroads are primarily passenger railroads. This function lends itself to high speed and low weight. Our railroads are primarily freight carrying, and long heavy trains at that. Currently, to take a loaded, 10,000 foot train over Cajon Pass in California (approx 2% grade for 20+ miles), 6 6000 horsepower locomotives are required. Each of these locomotives generates approximately 4-5 MegaWatts at peak capacity. That is enough to power a multitude of homes. The logistics of delivering that kind of power is just unreasonable. Some mining railroads use electric locomotives, or used to. Kennecott Copper in Nevada and Utah comes to mind immediately. They had some of the largest electric freight locomotives ever built, and yet they dieselized. Why? because the cost of providing 12,000 volts over a couple hundred miles of rail was prohibitively expensive. Can you imagine the immense cost of doing the same for the entire US rail system? It would be impossible.
Electrification works great on a small scale, for passenger operations. Large scale freight operations do not lend themselves particularly well to electrification.
Please at least have some facts before you make a post bashing the US rail system. The rail system works amazingly well for the scope of the operations it has to carry, and the distances it has to cover. I guarantee you that we would be much less prosperous as a country without them.