BNSF Railway is rethinking electrification of some of its lines, reports Railway Age Editor Bill Vantuono in an exclusive report at railwayage.com.
Even though railroads are many more times fuel-efficient than trucks and have not been hurt as badly by soaring diesel fuel costs as their rubber-tired rivals (partly because theyre able to recover a portion of their costs through fuel surcharges), theyre looking at additional ways to lower their fuel bill.
One of these is electrification, which, aside from a small, captive mining operation in the West, hasnt been employed by a freight railroad since the 1970s, when Conrail shelved its GG-1 and E-44 electric locomotives and tore down what little remained of the catenary the Pennsylvania Railroad had built for its northeastern freight operations in the 1930s.
The expense of building, operating, and maintaining catenary, combined with relatively cheap diesel fuel and more-or-less standardized diesel locomotives, provided the impetus for freight railroads to de-energize and tear down their wire.
Now, with diesel approaching $5 a gallon, and the railroads tasked with meeting tightening environmental regulations, electrification is getting another look, but with an approach a bit different than that taken with the railroad electrification projects of the first half of the 20th century.
There is a proposal to generate large quantities of electricity for public use with banks of wind turbines that would be built along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, and transmit all that power to places where its needed most, like California. Instead of acquiring land and building thousands of miles of high-tension lines, why not piggyback on an existing right-of-wayspecifically, a railroad right-of-way?
This is the scenario BNSF Railway is investigating.
The railroad already leases its transcontinental rights-of-way to fiber-optic companies in exchange for some capacity for its own communications and data transmission needs. It stands to reason that, in exchange for access to discounted electric traction power for trains, BNSF could lease right-of-way space to an electric utility on, for example, the Transcon, tapping into the high-tension lines for 25Kv or 50Kv catenary to power electric or perhaps even dual-power locomotives.
There would be technical and financial challenges erecting catenary poles and wire and substations; doublestack clearances for overhead wire; bridges and tunnels; the higher cost of electric locomotives compared to diesel; the need for people and equipment to operate and maintain the power grid, for example but if the economics of electric vs. diesel power can be altered (flipped, actually), electrification may make sense.
For railroads like BNSF, electrification is a long-term prospect. But with energy costs steadily rising for American consumers and the railroads demonstrating every day their superior fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness, electrification may one day prove a win-win situation for both.
(The preceding article by Railway Age Editor Bill Vantuono was published by railwayage.com)
I agree, it is like putting the frog in a pan of water, turning up the heat, then backing it down abit. After awhile, the frog will be cooked, and won't even be aware that it happened.
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I started ophph with nuthin, and I can safely say I have most of it left.... <img
I remember way back in the seventies reading articles about how the Southern was considering electrifying the CNO&TP (Cincinnati-Chattanooga) and some western road was considering the same thing for one of their main routes but don't recall which one. Don't know how serious they got (not very, obviously).
Yeah, ok. They are gonna look at electrification, again, huh? I am sure they will get on it right after they start caring about employee fatigue. Get ready folks, I am going to start holding my breath now...
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Some people say I have a bad attitude. Those people are stupid.
Yeah, ok. They are gonna look at electrification, again, huh? I am sure they will get on it right after they start caring about employee fatigue. Get ready folks, I am going to start holding my breath now...
Yeah, ok. They are gonna look at electrification, again, huh? I am sure they will get on it right after they start caring about employee fatigue. Get ready folks, I am going to start holding my breath now...
Hell, over on the old Milwaukee, the poles are probably still standing....
Yeah, ok. They are gonna look at electrification, again, huh? I am sure they will get on it right after they start caring about employee fatigue. Get ready folks, I am going to start holding my breath now...
Hell, over on the old Milwaukee, the poles are probably still standing....
Our north end covers some old Milkyroad territory, and yes there are still electrical poles standing.