World's first battery-electric locomotive cuts train fuel use by 11%

[rcjordan]

https://newatlas.com/transport/world-first-battery-electric-locomotive-fuel-consumption-wabtec/

[Travoli]

Trains seem like the perfect EV application. Weight isn't an issue. Treat locomotives like giant batteries: add and swap as needed. Couple of years and they'll be saving 50%.

[rcjordan]

IIRC, they already don't use much fuel relative to the amount of cargo weight they move.

[Travoli]

You're right. https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fuel-efficiency/

"CSX trains can move a ton of freight approximately 492 miles on a single gallon of fuel."

[littleman]

Obviously setting up third rails across the country would be very expensive and potentially dangerous, but this had me thinking that maybe capacitors could be used as the trains passed through "charging zones" and then those capacitors could unload into the lithium-ion battery banks.  In theory such a system would be able to extend the range or lower the battery requirement while minimizing charging down time.