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What's the advantage of this with respect to overhead catenary trains? I assume cheaper installation, but much more expensive energy as it has to be stored in t
by Ambolia 5y ago
What's the advantage of this with respect to overhead catenary trains? I assume cheaper installation, but much more expensive energy as it has to be stored in the battery and extracted back.
- yuppie_scum 5y agoBatteries will certainbe cheaper than thousands of miles of catenary and substations to power it.
- tuatoru 5y agoCatenary may still be better in trainyards though. Lots of shunting, relatively short distances. I remember seeing a YouTube about overhead wires for electric trucks on a busy German road. IIRC It was about 20 miles between cities.
- simonblack 5y agoOne lot of thousands of miles of catenary and substations versus hundreds of thousands of heavy batteries, and a permanent loss of significant load-carrying capacity per train. The catenary has it.
- satiric 5y agoLocomotives actually need to be a certain weight: you see this with "slug" locomotives, which have no diesel engine and need concrete or steel plates to make up the difference in weight. This is because the maximum torque that can be applied before you reach wheel spin is partly a function of the weight applied to the driving wheels. So in order to pull the weight that a diesel electric locomotive can, you'll probably need to add weight to the electric locomotive, and you may as well add it with batteries.
- totalZero 5y agoYou only need enough battery to get between lengths of track that can give you a recharge.
- killingtime74 5y agoSome trains using overhead now switch to diesel when the cables run out