Comment on Hydrogen locomotive

• Seraph@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Guessing that replacing that with a large battery that charges at night is unreasonable due to the torque needed? You'd probably need a battery larger than a train engine to be able to even do a few stops and starts. Which is why electric trains are wired all the time.

  If someone knows for sure I'm super curious!

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  • kn33@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    11-minute version

    3-hour version

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    • Seraph@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

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  • Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Is this whole thread a joke or have you people not heard of electrified rail

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    • Seraph@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I mentioned it in my comment that you're replying to. "wired" could easily refer to above or below, just continuous current is what matters for this discussion. Why do ask?

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      • Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Global warming is a major maintenance and safety nightmare outside and inside major cities.

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  • someguy3@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Trains are already pulling what 100 cars. It’s easy enough to have a car that’s a battery. But I think overhead lines are the way to go on the vast majority of lines.

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  • You999@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The problem with battery trains is that locomotives hardly sit around long enough to charge unless it’s some sort of switcher or in for maintenance. Really the only use case for battery locomotives outside of switchers is passenger service where it’s fairly common for a train to sit for eight plus hours. Amtrak and Siemens are actually doing this with 15 of the new airo trainsets which will run on the empire line. The trainsets will specifically run on battery while within the new York city tunnels where diesel locomotives are only allowed to operate under emergency.

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    • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There is probably a use for train with battery on partially electrified lines.

      The train charge on the electrified part and use batteries on the rest.

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  • topinambour_rex@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    For transport of people, it seems germany has some train with battery. They replace their hydrogen trains.

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  • MonkderZweite@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Supercapacitors.

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  • lemann@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If I ran the local power grid I’m not sure I’d want cargo trains using line power for traction, unless there was some mandated weight or length limit 🤔

    Without some cargo limit I think sections of the line’s voltage will just collapse under the current being drawn, whenever the cargo train moves off from a complete stop - especially if it’s a multi mile long cargo train that seems common in the US

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    • serratur@lemmy.wtf ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The Kiruna - Narvik electrified line is operating just fine with LKAB running the heaviest trains in Europe with a mass of 8600 tonnes.

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    • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      90% off the cargo trains are powered with electricity in France and can reach up to 750m.

      I agree It’s not multi mile long but it’s totally possible to have electric cargo trains.

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    • roguetrick@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There's little chance of that happening, but even if there was, they'd just use batteries for the acceleration phase. That's what hydrogen fuel cell trains do anyway, because the fuel cell can't produce enough power on it's own to accelerate the train, so they're used to charge batteries that allow it to do so.

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    • someguy3@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I really can’t see a train pulling so much that it crashes the entire system.

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    • uis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Without some cargo limit I think sections of the line’s voltage will just collapse

      I think this guy never learned about resistance. Maybe he skipped physics classes, maybe he didn’t even have them yet.

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      • lemann@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Would you ellaborate on what you mean, and the assumptions you drew from the quoted text?

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• Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Even better, we could also put cables above the train and connect them to an even bigger diesel generator located somewhere close to the railway. That would make the locomotive lighter and the energy production more efficient. Better yet, replace the diesel with uranium and you can easily power many trains.

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  • QuinceDaPence@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That would make the locomotive lighter

    That's not an advantage. You want your loco to be as heavy as possible for traction. If they were switching it to pantograph and it was lighter they'd add lead, iron, or something else to make up the difference

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    • uis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You want your loco to be as heavy as possible for traction.

      I see you don’t know why Caucasus was electrified. Non-electric locomotives were just too heavy and couldn’t lift as much as mass as electric could.

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• uis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Image Show me disel here

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