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I think existing electric locomotives are more powerful than existing diesel locomotives. The "most powerful diesel–electric locomotive model ever built on a s
by Symbiote 1y ago
I think existing electric locomotives are more powerful than existing diesel locomotives.
The "most powerful diesel–electric locomotive model ever built on a single frame", the EMD DDA40X, provides 5MW.
The EURO9000, "currently the most powerful locomotive on the European market" provides 9MW under electric power.
USA-made locomotives are so far down the list on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_powerful_locomotives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_powerful_locomoti... that I suspect there's some other reason they're not needed, e.g. spreading the braking force across multiple locomotives throughout the train.
- bombcar 1y agoThat electric locomotive has a really long cord attached to it - it only has about 2MW under diesel. Once you allow attaching an extension cord, electric wins ever time; there's zero competition.
- crote 1y agoTrains run on rails, which doesn't exactly allow them to go off-highway. If you're already spending a fortune on building the rail infrastructure, why wouldn't you spend a few bucks extra to install the extension cord?
- bombcar 1y agoBecause in most places in the world, the rail is already built. So it's either extend the existing rail network, or try to build a new one entirely. (Apparently it's something on the line of $10m/mile to add electrification, so presumably building it while building out is less, but not much less.)